Scholar and bestselling author Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) was born on this day in Belfast, Ireland. Raised in a home overflowing with books, he grew a lifelong passion for poetry, mythology, and writing.

When his beloved mother died in 1908, Lewis wrote that “all settled happiness, all that was tranquil and reliable, disappeared from my life.” Searching for wisdom and balance, he endured boarding school, fought in World War I, and called himself an atheist—yet kept thinking deeply about meaning.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream,” he believed.

While teaching literature and mythology at Oxford, Lewis joined the famed group The Inklings and formed a lifelong friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien, whose steady influence helped draw him toward Christianity in 1931.

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither,” Lewis said. Aiming at heaven, he became a beacon of faith and the gentle clarity he called “mere Christianity.”

His radio lectures during World War II reassured a shaken nation. His many books include The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956), still cherished by children and adults alike.

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world,” he reflected.