C. S. Lewis - A literary master
C. S. Lewis, or Clive Staples, was an Irish author and scholar. He was born on November 29th, 1898, and died on November 22nd, 1963. He was born into a Church of Ireland family, but was a resident of England throughout his adult life.
He won a scholarship to Oxford during World War I. He enlisted in the British Army in 1917. C. S Lewis arrived at the front lines in France on his nineteenth birthday. He was wounded during the battle of Aras, and suffered severe depression, partly due to missing his Irish home. When he had recovered, he was assigned duty in England. He was discharged in December of 1918, and returned to his studies.
Although raised as a Christian, C. S. Lewis was an atheist through most of his youth. When he wrote an account of his adult reconversion to Christianity, under the title “Surprised by Joy”, he said that he had been “very angry with God for not existing”.
C. S. Lewis taught at Oxford for nearly thirty years, from 1925 to 1954. He was later the first professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at the University of Cambridge.
In addition to his scholarly work, C. S. Lewis wrote a number of popular novels, including his science-fiction Space Trilogy, his fantasy Narnia books, and other assorted novels, most containing allegories on Christian themes such as the Fall, redemption, and sin.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, is a series of seven fantasy novels for children and family reading that is by far his most popular work. These books have a bold Christian theme, and describe the adventures of a group of children who visit a magical land named Narnia.
Some of his other works are harder to find around the world. Throughout his life, C. S. Lewis created 31 nonfiction titles and 18 fiction titles. In addition to these works, he also had four books of poetry published.
C. S. Lewis lived a very hard life. Every page you read that he has written is filled with characters from his real life. He was taken from his home to a far away land to go to a better school. This just added to the pain in his life. From cover to cover, his writing was his way of trying to work through these issues.
C. S. Lewis is admired by many scholars for all of his literary achievements. He won many awards for his works and created a masterpiece in “The Chronicles Of Narnia”. He will be remembered throughout time as being a literary master.