You probably know the name C.S. Lewis. It’s plastered on the spines of millions of paperbacks tucked away in childhood bedrooms and dusty library corners. But the story of who wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe isn't just a simple "once upon a time" biography. It’s actually a bit of a miracle the book exists at all. Clive Staples Lewis—or "Jack" to his friends—was a crusty Oxford don who spent most of his time arguing about medieval literature and drinking ale with J.R.R. Tolkien. He wasn't exactly the person you'd expect to define modern fantasy for children.
Honestly, his friends hated it.
When Lewis first read snippets of his story about a magical closet to his literary circle, the Inklings, the reaction was brutal. Tolkien, the genius behind The Lord of the Rings, thought it was terrible. He hated how Lewis mashed together Father Christmas, talking beavers, and Greek fauns. He called it a "jumble." If Lewis had listened to his best friend, the wardrobe would have stayed locked forever.
The Man Behind the Wardrobe: Who Was C.S. Lewis?
Lewis was a complex guy. Born in Belfast in 1898, he grew up in a house full of books but shadowed by grief after his mother died when he was young. This sense of "longing"—what he called Sehnsucht—drives almost every page of the Narnia series. He served in the trenches of World War I, an experience that gave him a very real understanding of the "Long Winter" he would later write about. He wasn't just some academic daydreaming in an ivory tower; he’d seen the worst of humanity and still wanted to find a way to write about hope.
By the time he sat down to write about Lucy Pevensie in 1939, he was a famous Christian apologist and a respected scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford. He was known for being sharp, loud, and incredibly intelligent. Yet, he had this weirdly specific image stuck in his head since he was sixteen: a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood.
It stayed there for decades.
He didn't start with a moral. He didn't start with a plot. He just had that one mental picture. It took the outbreak of World War II and the evacuation of children from London to his country home, The Kilns, to finally provide the "human" element he needed to turn that faun into a full-blown masterpiece.
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The "Inklings" and the Fight Over Narnia
You can’t talk about who wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe without mentioning the Inklings. This was the informal writing group that met at the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford. Imagine sitting in a dark, smoky back room—the "Rabbit Room"—listening to the creators of Middle-earth and Narnia argue over draft chapters.
Tolkien was a perfectionist. He spent years inventing entire languages and geological histories before he’d even write a scene. Lewis was the opposite. He wrote fast. He followed his intuition.
This caused friction.
Tolkien felt that Lewis was being "slapdash" by throwing together elements that didn't belong in the same world. For example, why is there a Victorian lamppost in a magical forest? Why does a mythological creature like Mr. Tumnus know what "afternoon tea" is? To a world-builder like Tolkien, this was a mess. But Lewis didn't care about consistency as much as he cared about the feeling of the story. He wanted to capture the "taste" of a certain kind of joy.
He almost gave up, though. After the cold reception from his peers, he nearly destroyed the manuscript. It was only through the encouragement of another friend, Roger Lancelyn Green, that Lewis pushed forward. Green recognized that Narnia wasn't a "jumble"—it was a new kind of myth.
Why the Book Was Different from Everything Else in 1950
When the book was finally published in 1950, critics weren't sure what to make of it. At the time, children's literature was supposed to be realistic or instructional. Lewis broke those rules. He wrote for children the way he wrote for adults—with respect for their intellect.
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- He didn't talk down to his readers.
- He used "grown-up" words when they were the right words.
- He allowed the story to be genuinely scary. The White Witch isn't a cartoon villain; she’s a cold, calculated tyrant.
People often ask if he wrote it specifically as a religious allegory. Lewis actually pushed back on that. He called it a "supposal." He said, "Suppose there was a world like Narnia, and the Son of God became a Lion there, as He became a Man here? What would happen?" It’s a subtle difference, but it’s why the book feels like a living story rather than a dry Sunday school lesson.
The Physical Act of Writing at The Kilns
Lewis wrote the book longhand with a nib pen. No typewriter. No computer. He sat in his study at The Kilns, looking out at the large garden that felt like its own little kingdom. He was a man of habit. Breakfast, a walk, hours of tutoring students, and then the evening reserved for his own creative work.
He was also incredibly prolific. While he’s the person who wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, he also wrote dozens of other books on philosophy, theology, and literary history. He was a workhorse. He didn't wait for "inspiration" to strike; he sat down and put the words on the paper because he felt a responsibility to the story.
Interestingly, he didn't even think it would be a series. He finished the first book and thought that was it. But then the questions started coming. How did the wardrobe get there? Who was the Professor? This led him to write the subsequent six books, eventually creating the chronological "prequel" The Magician’s Nephew years later.
Common Misconceptions About the Author
A lot of people think Lewis was a lifelong children's author. He wasn't. He didn't have kids of his own until much later in life when he married Joy Davidman. In fact, many of his colleagues at Oxford looked down on him for writing "nursery tales." They thought it was beneath a man of his academic standing.
There’s also this idea that he and Tolkien were always best friends. While they were incredibly close for years, their friendship cooled as Lewis became more famous. Tolkien was a bit jealous of Lewis’s speed and popularity, and he never really got over his dislike of the Narnia books. It’s a bit sad, really. The two giants of fantasy literature ended their lives on somewhat distant terms, despite having basically invented the genre together in those early pub meetings.
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The Legacy of the 1950 Classic
Since its release, the book has never been out of print. It’s been translated into over 47 languages. It has been adapted into BBC plays, big-budget Hollywood movies, and countless stage productions.
But why does it stick?
It sticks because Lewis understood that "someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again." He wrote a book that works for a seven-year-old and a seventy-year-old. He tapped into the universal human desire for a world where justice actually wins and where even the smallest, weakest person (like Lucy) can change the course of history.
Actionable Steps for Exploring Lewis Further
If you want to go deeper than just knowing the name of who wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, there are a few things you should actually do.
First, read The Screwtape Letters. It shows the snarky, brilliant side of Lewis that Narnia only hints at. It’s a series of letters from a senior demon to a junior demon, and it is incredibly funny and biting.
Second, if you’re ever in England, visit Oxford. Go to the Eagle and Child (though it has been closed for renovations, the history is in the walls). Walk through Addison’s Walk at Magdalen College. You can see the exact environment that shaped Aslan’s creator.
Third, check out the biography C.S. Lewis: A Life by Alister McGrath. It’s the gold standard for understanding how Lewis’s conversion to Christianity and his academic career collided to create Narnia.
Finally, read the books in the order they were written, not the "chronological" order the publishers use now. Start with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. There is a specific magic in discovering the world alongside the Pevensie children that you lose if you start with the origin story. The mystery of the wardrobe is the best way in. Just remember to keep the door cracked open—you never know when you might find yourself in a forest where it’s always winter and never Christmas.