Joy Gresham
Joy Gresham (November 1945–1960) New York divorcée and mother of
Douglas Gresham, she moved to England in 1953 where she met and married her second husband, author
C.S. Lewis, having been inspired by his books on
Christianity. (Her first husband William drank heavily and eventually left her for another woman.) A former card carrying communist and atheistic Jew, it was largely through Lewis' writings that Gresham examined and subsequently converted to the Christian faith. His intellectual equal, she captivated Lewis who first married her out of convenience so that she could obtain her British citizenship. When she fell ill with cancer, he realized how much he loved her and proposed to marry her properly, "before God." She recovered briefly, but she eventually succumbed to cancer. It claimed her life in 1960 at the age of forty-five; Lewis died one week shy of his sixty-fifth birthday three years later on November 22, 1963, the same day American president
John F. Kennedy was assassinated. (British novelist
Aldous Huxley also died on that day).
Shadowlands, a romanticized version of her life with Lewis starring Anthony Hopkins as Jack (C.S. Lewis) and Debra Winger as Joy, was released for HBO in 1993 and is now available on DVD.
Maiden name: Joy Davidman
Headstone Epitaph:
''Here the whole world
'' (stars, water, air,
''And field, and forest, as they were
''Reflected in a single mind)
''Like cast off clothes was left behind
''In ashes, yet with hopes that she,
''Re-born from holy poverty,
''In lenten lands, hereafter may
Resume them on her Easter Day.
See also:
Douglas Gresham, C.S. Lewis
External Links: