1. Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland on 29 November one day after my birthday.
2. At the age of four, shortly after his dog Jacksie died when run over by a car, Lewis announced that his name was now Jacksie. At first he would answer to no other name, but later accepted Jack, the name by which he was known to friends and family for the rest of his life.
3. As a young boy, Lewis had a fascination with anthropomorphic animals. During a time when influenza was ravaging many families, Lewis and his brother were forced to stay indoors and entertain themselves by reading. They fell in love with Beatrix Potter's animals and created Boxen, a land inhabited and run by animals. Their stories were complete with details about economics, politics/government, and history, as well as illustrations of buildings and characters.
4. His Chronicles of Narnia inspired me to actually enjoy conducting book reports in grade school. I even acted out the scene where Lucy first meets Mr. Tumnus at the lamp post with a schoolmate for extra credit.
5. He was friends with J.R.R. Tolkien! Lewis’s main character, Ransom, of his Space Trilogy is based in part on Tolkien, a fact that Tolkien himself alludes to in his Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien.
6. He wrote a Space Trilogy
7. While in the army Lewis became close friends with another cadet, "Paddy" Moore. The two had made a mutual pact that if either died during the war, the survivor would take care of both their families. Paddy was killed in action and Lewis kept his promise. Lewis and his brother Warnie moved in with Moore's mother and sister Maureen. Lewis became very close with Mrs. Moore. She eventually suffered from dementia in her later years and was moved into a nursing home. Lewis visited her every day in this home until her death.
8. "Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves...When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
- from his On Three Ways of Writing For Children
9. The Screwtape Letters one of my most favorite
10. Because now I always check the back of the wardrobe just in case
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