Literary Encyclopedia

C. S. Lewis

  • Peter Schakel (Hope College)

C. S. Lewis was born in Belfast, Ulster (now Northern Ireland), 29 November 1898. His father, Albert, read law and became a solicitor, the first generation of his family to achieve professional status. His mother, Florence (Flora) Augusta Hamilton, descended from a titled Scottish family and an Anglo-Norman family that had been landowners in Ireland since the twelfth century. She graduated from Queens College, Belfast, with a First Class Honors in logic and Second Class Honors in mathematics. The Lewises were married in 1894. Their only other child, Warren, was born in 1895.

Lewis grew up in a household which valued education, reading, and music - both parents were voracious readers, and their house was filled with books. The

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First published 09 May 2003; revised 30 July 2010

Citation: Schakel, Peter. "C. S. Lewis". The Literary Encyclopedia. 09 May 2003

[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2718, accessed 30 July 2010.]

 

Life, Works and Times

Related Groups

Dates:

  • 1898 to 1963 (Life Span)
  • 1919 to 1963 (Activity Span)

Places:

  • Northern Ireland (Birth)
  • United Kingdom (Primary Activity)

Genres and Modes:

  • Science Fiction (Primary)

Activities:

  • Children's writer (Primary)
  • Essayist (Primary)
  • Fiction writer (Primary)
  • Literary Critic/ Historian (Primary)
  • Novelist (Primary)
  • Autobiographer (Other)
  • Historian / Chronicler (Other)
  • Poet (Other)
  • Religious writer (Other)