Clive Staples Lewis died on this day 47 years ago. He had been born in Belfast, Ireland, some 65 years previously. At the age of 15 he became an atheist, and two years later he won a scholarship to study at University College, Oxford. The First World War was then underway, and he served in the British Army for several months until being wounded by friendly fire, then eventually being discharged and returning to his studies at the end of 1918.
CS Lewis gradually rediscovered Christianity, largely through arguments with his friend J R R Tolkien and through reading The Everlasting Man by G K Chesterton. He converted to theism in 1929, and then to Christianity in 1931, becoming a committed member of the Church of England. He corresponded with an American writer, Joy Davidman Gresham and later married her, although the marriage lasted only a few years before she died of cancer.
Lewis is remembered mainly for his influential writings, which include The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of seven fantasy novels which make Christian ideas accessible to young readers. Christian apologetic works for which he is famous include Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, and Miracles. Lewis died on 22 November 1963, the same day that US President Kennedy was assassinated.