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Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963)

© Mary Lou Derksen

C. S. Lewis was born in the outskirts of Belfast, Ireland. Although his parents came from very different backgrounds, both of his grandfathers were fluent writers. His grandfather, Richard Lewis, wrote theological essays and primitive science-fiction stories to amuse his children. His other grandfather, Thomas Hamilton, a naval chaplain in the Baltic during the Crimean War, traveled in Europe and wrote copious travel journals.

Clive's father, Albert, was given the most education of any of the sons in the family, and he became a successful solicitor (lawyer). He was a master of the anecdote and a fund of improbable stories, telling comical tall tales, totally imaginary ones, or fabricated buffoonery of people he met. In "Surprised by Joy," Lewis describes his father: "His nerves had never been the steadiest, and his emotions had always been uncontrolled."

Clive Staples preferred at an early age to be called "Jack," while his older brother, Warren, was known as "Warnie." The two brothers were often ignored by their parents--the nanny and several other servants had a great deal to do with their upbringing. The boys became fast friends, riding their bikes together on sunny days and exploring the attics of their home on rainy ones. They both inherited a deformity of the thumb, which made them manually inept. They made up for this through make-believe.

When "Jack" was about five years old, he began writing "essays in fiction," inventing "Animal Land," which he peopled with Arthurian mice who carried swords in full armed combat with gigantic cats. As Warnie's interest lay in India, they connected their two imaginary worlds with complex shipping routes.

Somewhere along the line, before Jack was seven, the two brothers had picked up on their father's power to distort and fictionalize those he had met or read about, and had developed their own method of mythologizing the grown-ups, whose behavior both amused them and threatened the security of their alliance.

The boys also found ways to cope with unpleasant situations, such as the day when all of the house servants except the charwoman were gone. Mrs. Mop had to cook the meal–raw steak with a light coating of brown on the outside, and potatoes that had perhaps seen warm water--which neither boy found appetizing. Jack came up with the idea. "Let's give this lot a ceremonial funeral." The boys filed solemnly towards a flower bed. Jack was first, carrying the gramophone that played Chopin's "Funeral March." Warnie came behind, carrying the dinner and a trowel. They dug the grave, buried the meal, stood for a moment of reverent silence, and slowly retreated to the house, gramophone still playing. The charwoman was so riled that she immediately left the house and never returned.

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