10 Interesting Facts about C.S. Lewis

If you love to read novels and poems, then these following facts about C.S. Lewis should be one of your favorite novelist and poet. As you know, Clive Staples Lewis, commonly called by the name C.S. Lewis and know to his friends and family as “Jack”, was a novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist. If you’re on of Narnia fans, then you must know its author. Yes, it is C.S. Lewis. To get to know more about him, here are other facts about C.S. Lewis you may like.

Facts about C.S. Lewis 1: Aslan

‘Aslan’, the name of the central Lion character in the Narnia Chronicles, is the Turkish word for ‘lion’. Interestingly, Aslan never appeared in the first draft of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, even though it was published a year later.

Facts about C.S. Lewis 2: Inklings

C.S. Lewis kept famous literary company, befriending poet W.B. Yeats and was close friends with J. R. R. Tolkein. Tolkein and Lewis were part of an Oxford literary group called the Inklings, who encouraged the writing of fantasy. Despite this, it is said that The Hobbit author was so critical of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe that Lewis nearly didn’t finish it.

Facts about C.S. Lewis 3: Same Event

C.S. Lewis’s death, on 22 November 1963, went largely unreported as it happened on the same day that American President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and the day that Brave New World author, Aldous Huxley, died.

Facts about C.S. Lewis 4: Works and Collections

Lewis is best known for his seven children’s books, The Chronicles of Narnia. However, he also wrote 47 works of non-fiction, 11 of fiction and four poetry collections.

Facts about C.S. Lewis 5: Clive Hamilton

C.S. Lewis was the author’s real name (he was born Clive Staples Lewis), but was known to friends and family as Jack. However, he published his poetry collections under a pseudonym of Clive Hamilton.

Facts about C.S. Lewis 6: Battle of the Somme

C.S. Lewis fought in the Battle Of The Somme, which say over 1 million casualties. He arrived at the front line in the Somme Valley on his 19th birthday, and while he survived unscathed, he was sent home in April 1918 wounded.

Facts about C.S. Lewis 7: The Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles Of Narnia has sold over 100 million copies in 41 languages. It has also proved inspiration, time and time again, for film, radio, stage and tv interpretations.

Facts about C.S. Lewis 8: Narnia

C.S. Lewis first thought of Narnia in 1939, but didn’t finish writing the first book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, until a decade later in 1949. The name ‘Narnia’ is a Latin word, referring to a town in ancient Italy called ‘Narni’.

Facts about C.S. Lewis 9: Pevensie Family

The children in the Narnia books, the four siblings of the Pevensie family, are known and loved as Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. However, they started out life in Lewis’s manuscript as Ann, Rose, Martin and Peter.

Facts about C.S. Lewis 10: Narnia’s Character

The character of Puddleglum, who appears as a principl character in The Silver Chair, was based on Lewis’ gardener, Fred Paxford.

Those following facts about C.S. Lewis should be really interesting for you to read. Through Lewis’ collection of works, you may also know what purpose he was aim to during his life and what kind of personality he was. Hope you would find these C.S. Lewis facts really interesting and useful.