Joy
On this day:1952 - Lewis meets Joy Gresham for the first time, over lunch at the Eastgate Hotel, Oxford.
Can it be possible
That joy flows through and, when the course is run
It leaves no change, no mark on us to tell
Its passing? And as poor as we've begun
We end the richest day? What we have won
Can it all die like this? ...Joy flickers on
The razor-edge of the present and is gone.
~C.S. Lewis, Narrative Poems, "Dymer" (1st pub. 1926), verse 10
"We feasted on love; every mode of it, solemn and merry, romantic and realistic, sometimes as dramatic as the thunderstorm, sometimes comfortable and unemphatic as putting on your soft slippers. She was my pupil, my teacher, my subject and my sovereign, my trusty comrade, friend, shipmate, fellow-soldier. My mistress, but at the same time all that any man friend has ever been to me."
~C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (1961)
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I found this on the C.S. Lewis Centenary Group site, from an interview with Douglas Gresham:
"Douglas Gresham writes: I can only speak for myself, as David left to lead his own life quite early, and I do not know the details of where he went or what he did.
Q. What happened to the boys (Douglas and David) after Joy's death?
DHG: As for myself, I stayed at The Kilns with Jack and Warnie until Jack died in 1963 and then went to live with my mother's best friend who offered me a home. I stayed there until 1967 when I married and emigrated to Australia. For the full story read "Lenten Lands: My childhood with Joy Davidman and C.S.Lewis" (Harper San Francisco). Today, together with my wife Merrie, I run Rathvinden Ministries, a non-denominational counselling and healing ministry in Ireland."
Here is a link to the Centenary Group's site.
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D'oh! Sorry for the post I deleted! I did it again, I confused Amatire with Anamire. *slaps self*
Yes, Anamire, Joy Gresham was previously married and had two boys. She was also Jewish, but converted to Christianity partly as a result of reading Lewis's books. Here is a piece of the bio from TheOneWardrobe.net:
"1956:
On April 23, he entered into a civil marriage with Joy at the Oxford Registry Office for the purpose of conferring upon her the status of British citizenship in order to prevent her threatened deportation by British migration authorities. In December, a bedside marriage was performed in accordance with the rites of the Church of England in Wingfield Hospital. Joy's death was thought to be imminent because of bone cancer. Joy had converted to Christianity from Judaism in 1948 partly under the influence of Lewis's books and divorced in 1953 due to her husband's desertion.
1958 Throughout 1957, Joy had experienced an extraordinary recovery from her near terminal bout with cancer. In July of 1958, Jack and Joy went to Ireland for a 10-day holiday. On August 19 and 20, he made tapes of ten talks on The Four Loves in London. Lewis was elected an Honorary Fellow of University College, Oxford. "Reflections on the Psalms" was published.
1960 Subsequent to learning of the return of Joy's cancer, Jack and Joy, together with Roger Lancelyn Green and his wife, Joy, went to Greece from April 3 to April 14, visiting Athens, Mycenae, Rhodes, Herakleon, and Knossos. There was a one-day stop in Pisa on the return. Joy died on July 13 at the age of 45, not long after their return from Greece. "Studies in Words" and "The Four Loves" were published."
Hope that helps, Anamire.
(I'm going to get the both of you straight in my mind eventually!)
Oh, and has everyone been watching the ebay auction on that first edition "The Silver Chair"? The bids are up to $1,232.95. (of course a first edition The Hobbit is for sale at $85,000 right now)
One other comment, since I'm making lots of them on this post--
"Joy flickers on
The razor-edge of the present and is gone"
Whoa. That is soooo deep, don't you think? *ponders*
You know, the other thing that might be interesting to you, Anamire, is the fact that Lewis didn't tell his friend J.R.R.Tolkien about his marriage. Most certainly because he knew that Tolkien would disapprove of his marrying a divorcee. I think that someone else finally wrote to Tolkien and told him.
When Joy was in the hospital (I think for the last time), it just so happened that Tolkien's wife was in the same hospital (am I getting this right, Sandi?). Tolkien and his wife were finally able to meet Joy, and I guess they all made amends. Or so they say. But I don't think Lewis's and Tolkien's relationship was ever as close as it was at the beginning.
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