First edition. Octavo. Publisher’s grey cloth, lettered gilt, in the original dustwrapper. 
 
A near fine copy, some toning to endpapers, in a very good dustwrapper, a little spotted and worn. Pencil note to title page denoting C.S. Lewis’s authorship.
 
The first edition of C.S. Lewis’s anonymously published meditations on the death of his wife.
It was written by Lewis in the days immediately following the death of his wife Joy Davidman.
 
To preserve his anonymity, Lewis’s agent sent the book to Faber, as they had not published his work before, and T.S. Eliot found the book to be incredibly moving and even guessed the author’s identity.
The pen name of N.W. Clerk was chosen. The N.W. stood for Nat Whilk (Anglo Saxon for I know not whom) with Clerk meaning scholar or writer.
 
His anonymity was so secure that after the book was published, some friends of the author felt it might help him to read it, and so sent him copies.