10 Surprising Things You Didn't Know about C.S. Lewis
- G. Connor Salter Contributing Writer
- Updated Feb 15, 2024
C.S. Lewis has become world-famous for writing the Chronicles of Narnia and the apologetics book Mere Christianity. However, not many people know the rest of his life story. So, what are some things you likely did not know about him?
1. He wrote poetry.
Lewis hoped in his twenties that he would become known as a poet and published two books of poetry. Spirits in Bondage is a series of poems he wrote while serving in World War I, making him a minor member of the war poets movement. Dymer is a book-long epic about authoritarianism, adventure, and magic. Ultimately, Lewis put away his hope of becoming a well-known published poet, although he kept writing poetry and routinely criticized modernist poet T.S. Eliot. Late in his life, Lewis befriended Eliot when they were both on a committee to revise the Church of England Psalter.
2. He was a great academic.
Readers discovering Lewis’ many books for the first time may not realize that Lewis wrote them while working full-time at Oxford University, teaching subjects like philosophy and medieval literature. Lewis released several important academic books, including English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama.
3. He didn’t mind friends disagreeing with him.
Lewis had many lifelong friendships—particularly with his brother Warren, also known as “Warnie.” An interesting feature of his many friendships (with fellow academics like J.R.R. Tolkien, with college friends like Owen Barfield, with fellow writers like Charles Williams) was that he didn’t mind friends disagreeing with him. He relished a good debate where friends who respected each other could give opposing views, pushing each other to think better.
4. He wrote with a pen.
Given how many books Lewis wrote (and the many sermons and lectures he gave over the years), you’d think he used a typewriter to get words out as fast as possible. In fact, Lewis wrote with a nib pen, which requires routinely putting the pen in an inkwell. Writing with a pen slowed him down, but scholars like Devin Brown have noted it gave Lewis time to think carefully about what he was communicating.
5. He wasn’t stuffy.
Lewis was unquestionably a smart man who read very widely, yet he never became fussy or snobbish. In The Fellowship, Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski describe Lewis’ conversation with Oxford student Alaister Fowler about “What is life’s greatest pleasure?” After considering classic options like great art and mystical ecstasy, Lewis said the answer was finding a bathroom after a long country walk.
6. He wrote science fiction.
Most readers familiar with Lewis’ fiction know the Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters. Fewer readers know about the Space Trilogy, three science fiction books Lewis wrote in the 1930s-1940s that involve space travel, paranormal servants of God (and darker forces), and scientists trying to change humanity or earth into something more mechanical.
If you want to learn more about C.S. Lewis’s writings and how he brought the great questions of the Christian faith to life then check out this free course provided by Hillsdale College. You can see a preview of the course HERE.
7. His faith hurt his career.
Although Lewis had a substantial academic career at Oxford, he neither received a professorship. Warnie and Tolkien both mention surprising animosity when Lewis was up for promotions—Warren remembered someone saying he couldn’t recommend the author of The Screwtape Letters for a professorship. Scholars like Philip and Carol Zaleski explain the issue was that Oxford academics were expected to stick with their academic specialty. Lewis broke that rule with his radio talks, speeches, and books about Christianity. Ultimately, Cambridge offered a professorship to Lewis, which he accepted in 1954.
8. He gained a wife and children later in life.
Although he never had children, Lewis entered a civil union with Joy Davidman, a divorced American writer with two sons, in 1956. What began as a civil union so Davidman could maintain residency in England led to a romance, and they were married by an Anglican priest in 1957. Their surprising marriage story (and Davidman’s 1960 death from cancer) was dramatized in the film Shadowlands. Lewis’ stepson Douglas plays an important part in promoting Lewis’ legacy, including co-producing Disney’s three Narnia movies.
9. He died the same day as two other famous people.
Lewis passed away on November 22, 1963, less than an hour before John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas. Aldous Huxley also passed away that day. Peter Kreeft used this interesting fact as the basis for Between Heaven and Hell, which imagines the three men meeting after death and talking about their views before being called into the final judgment room.
10. He wasn’t the only writer in the Lewis family.
Lewis’ father, Albert, wrote several stories which weren’t published during his lifetime; one was recently published in the CS Lewis academic publication Sehnsucht. Warnie made a lifetime career out of the British Army, but after retiring, he wrote several books on 17th-century France.
What Is C.S. Lewis’ Legacy?
Lewis has influenced many readers but also greatly impacted friends who wrote classic books. Here are some quotes about him from friends and admirers.
1. “He was for long my only audience. Only from him did I ever get the idea that my ‘stuff’ could be more than a private hobby. But for his interest and unceasing eagerness for more I should never have brought The [Lord of the Rings] to a conclusion.” — J.R.R. Tolkien, in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
2. “… And that was Lewis’s genius: his ability to take the vast and sometimes complicated claims of Christianity, boil them down and express them in a way that nearly everyone can understand--whether they’re driven to their knees by them or not.” — Eric Metaxas, Breakpoint column
3. “Jack (C.S. Lewis) was a man whose extraordinary scholarship and intellectual ability isolated him from much of mankind. There were few people among his peers who could match him in debate or discussion, and those who could almost inevitably found themselves drawn to one another in a small, tight-knit group which became known as ‘The Inklings,’ and which has let us with a legacy of literature.” — Douglas Gresham’s introduction to A Grief Observed
4. “The question asked of Aslan could also be asked of a book like The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Is it safe? A fairy tale about talking animals and witchcraft? Written by a pipe-smoking, beer-drinking Oxford don who hints at all sorts of peculiar doctrine in books like The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce? Is it safe? Of course it isn’t. But you know as well as I do that it’s good. In fact, some of its goodness derives from the fact that Lewis was not in the least concerned with writing a safe book. Safe isn’t a word we associate with greatness, any more than we do with God.” — J. Mark Bertrand, quoted in a speech by Simon Morden
5. “But Lewis is magnificently ruthless with the people who do set out to produce what purports to be a logical argument and then fake the premises, or beg the question, or leave their middles undistributed, or use ambivalent terms, or smuggle the concept of time into an argument about eternity, or ignorantly confuse efficient causes with final causes and attribute the resulting absurdity to St. Thomas. He is down on the thing like a rat; he is God’s terrier and I wouldn’t be without him for the world.” — Dorothy L. Sayers, 1947 letter to Brother George Every, quoted in Dorothy and Jack
(An earlier version of this article appeared as “20 Surprising C.S. Lewis Quotes and Facts You Didn’t Know.”)
To learn more about C.S. Lewis and his friends, explore these articles:
What You Need to Know about Dorothy L. Sayers
10 Great Movies about C.S. Lewis and the Inklings
Who Were the Inklings Besides C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien?
5 Christian Women Who Influenced C.S. Lewis
Why Was Charles Williams the Odd Inkling?
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