C.S. Lewis was a renowned British author best known for The Chronicles of Narnia series. Born in Belfast, Ireland in 1898, he was educated in England and went on to teach at Oxford University. There he befriended fellow writer J.R.R. Tolkien and found Christianity, influencing many of his works. Some of his most famous titles include Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and Till We Have Faces. Later in life he married an American woman named Joy Gresham, but their marriage was cut short when she passed away from cancer. Lewis himself died on the same day as President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

2.  Gary Newsome, the retired president, CEO, and
board member of Health Management Associates,
enjoys reading the classics. Gary Newsome
particularly appreciates the work of C. S. Lewis, best
known for the Chronicles of Narnia series and other
Christian-themed works.
Born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1898, Lewis was an
imaginative child who loved tales of fantasy. He and
his older brother Warren created an imaginary
country, Boxen, which featured a detailed history.
Their mother died when C. S. Lewis was 10 years old;
he was educated by a tutor and at boarding schools
before entering Oxford University.

3.  Graduating in literature and philosophy and taking a
teaching position, Lewis met with the Inklings, a circle of
intellectuals and writers that included J. R. R. Tolkien. The
group influenced Lewis to accept Christianity, which he
had abandoned in his youth.
Lewis began writing for the public with a satire called
Dymer. A later book, the Allegory of Love, won the
Hawthornden Prize. He followed that with a science
fictional work, Out of the Silent Planet, the first of a trilogy
that dealt with a fallen humanity. During the Second World
War, Lewis' radio talks on his faith won many adherents
and were collected in the book Mere Christianity. After the
war, Lewis authored two more Christian works, The Great
Divorce and Miracles, well received by theologians and
laity alike.

4.  In the 1950s, Lewis authored seven
children's books known collectively as the
Chronicles of Narnia, which is sometimes
interpreted as religious allegory. Popular
with younger readers, portions of the series
have been adapted as animated and
theatrical films. Other highlights of his
publishing career included Till We Have
Faces (the myth of Cupid and Psyche) and
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life.

5.  Brightening his later personal life was his
marriage to an American English
teacher, Joy Gresham. Their marriage of
four years was cut short by her cancer.
Lewis captured his deeply felt mourning
in A Grief Observed, which he wrote
under a pseudonym. Lewis resigned from
teaching in 1963 because of heart
disease; his death followed on Nov. 22,
1963.