Prince Caspian

Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 ? 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as Jack, was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist. He is also known for his fiction, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Space Trilogy.

Lewis was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings. Both authors were leading figures in the English faculty at Oxford University and in the informal Oxford literary group known as the "Inklings". According to his memoir Surprised by Joy, Lewis had been baptised in the Church of Ireland at birth, but fell away from his faith during his adolescence. Owing to the influence of Tolkien and other friends, at about the age of 30, Lewis returned to Christianity, becoming "a very ordinary layman of the Church of England".Lewis (1952) Mere Christianity; p. 6 His conversion had a profound effect on his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim.

In 1956, he married the American writer Joy Gresham (17 years his junior), who died four years later after a long battle against cancer. She was only 45 years old.

Lewis himself died three years later following a heart attack, one week before what would have been his 65th birthday. Media coverage of his death was minimal, as he died on 22 November 1963 - the same day that the US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Lewis's works have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold millions of copies over the years. The books that comprise The Chronicles of Narnia have sold the most and have been popularised on stage, in TV, in radio, and in cinema.