Today, Helen "Joy" Davidman is known primarily as the wife of C.S. Lewis. But before she became the cherished companion of one of the 20th century's leading theologians and writers, she had worked hard to build her own writing career. A poet, critic, onetime ardent Communist and lifelong spiritual seeker, Joy was a brilliant but difficult woman. Abigail Santamaria explores the many facets of Joy's life and career in her new biography, titled simply Joy.
Intellectually curious yet hungry for a cause she could follow, Joy believed in the Communist Party, and her association with the Party helped her career to flourish for a time, as did several summers she spent writing at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. In time, however, Joy became disillusioned with the Party. She also had several experiences of what she called "moments of grace," which set her on a journey toward the Christianity she would later embrace.
Frustrated by professional setbacks and the failure of her first marriage, Joy uprooted her life--and that of her two young sons--to travel to England in 1952. She had struck up a flourishing correspondence with Lewis, and she set out to woo her literary lion. Santamaria chronicles the difficulties of Joy's life in England and Lewis's reaction to her arrival, but shows that, in the end, they did fall deeply in love. As Joy's health began to fail, her relationship with Lewis flourished, and their last few years together were blissful.
A clear-eyed, insightful portrait of a fascinating woman, Santamaria's biography adds important depth and richness to the popular image of Joy Davidman. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams