The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 1

In 1916, C.S. Lewis wrote to a friend: “… whenever you are fed up with life, start writing: ink is the great cure for all human ills, as I have found out long ago.” As his three-volume Collected Letters aptly demonstrates, Lewis never gave up his habit of turning to the written word for refuge.


Volume One of this breathtakingly comprehensive anthology contains letters from C.S. Lewis’s boyhood, his army days in World War I and his early academic life at Oxford. From his declared atheism at age 16 to his budding friendship with J.R.R. Tolkein, these letters set the stage for Lewis’s influential career.

Follow Lewis’s spiritual path as he first announces he has abandoned his Christian faith, writing “I believe in no religion … There is absolutely no proof for any of them.” He goes on to witness the horrors of World War I and engage in a life of study at Oxford. Finally, in 1930 Lewis admits: “Whereas once I would have said, ‘Shall I adopt Christianity?’ I now wait to see whether it will adopt me.”

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was born in Belfast. He was a fellow and tutor in English Literature at Magdalen College, Oxford, and was later Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, where he remained until his death. His major contributions in literary criticism, children’s literature, fantasy literature, and popular theology brought him international renown and acclaim. Lewis’s most distinguished and popular accomplishments include The Chronicles of Narnia, Out of the Silent Planet, The Four Loves, The Screwtape Letters, and Mere Christianity.