| Description |
xv, 413 pages, [16] unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Summary |
Joy Davidman is known, if she is known at all, as the wife of C.S. Lewis. Their marriage was immortalized in the film Shadowlands and Lewis's memoir A Grief Observed. Now, through new documents as well as years of research and interviews, Abigail Santamaria brings Joy Davidman Gresham Lewis to the page in the depth she deserves. A poet and radical, Davidman was an active member of New York literary and communist circles in the 1930s and 1940s. After growing up Jewish in the Bronx, she became an atheist, then a practitioner of Dianetics; she converted to Christianity after experiencing a moment of transcendent grace. A mother, a novelist, a vibrant and difficult and intelligent woman, she set off for England in 1952, determined to captivate the man whose work had changed her life. Davidman became the intellectual and spiritual partner Lewis never expected. She helped him refine his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, and to write his novel Till We Have Faces. Their relationship--begun when Joy wrote to Lewis for religious guidance--grew from a dialogue about faith, writing, and poetry into a deep friendship and a timeless love story.--Adapted from book jacket. |
|
"The first full biography of Joy Davidman, known primarily as C.S. Lewis's late-in-life bride, but who here receives her much deserved rescue from that shadow"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [350]-395) and index. |
| Subject |
Davidman, Joy.
|
|
Women poets, American -- Biography.
|
|
Authors' spouses -- Great Britain -- Biography.
|
|
Christian converts from Judaism -- United States -- Biography.
|
| ISBN |
9780151013715 (hardback) |
|
0151013713 (hardback) |
|
