Volume 22 Number 2 Article 3 1998 Joy Davidman Lewis: Author, Editor and Collaborator Diana Pavlac Glyer Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Glyer, Diana Pavlac (1998) "Joy Davidman Lewis: Author, Editor and Collaborator," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 22 : No. 2 , Article 3. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol22/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Biography of Joy Davidman Lewis and her influence on C.S. Lewis. Additional Keywords Davidman, Joy—Biography; Davidman, Joy—Criticism and interpretation; Davidman, Joy—Influence on C.S. Lewis; Davidman, Joy—Religion; Davidman, Joy. Smoke on the Mountain; Lewis, C.S.—Influence of Joy Davidman (Lewis); Lewis, C.S. Till We Have Faces This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol22/iss2/3 P a g e 10 I s s u e 8 4 Sum m er 1998 MYTHLORE J o y D a v id m a n L e w is : A u t h o r , E d it o r a n d C ollaborator D ia n a P a v l a c G l y e r INTRODUCTION started reading at age two. At eight, she read H. G. Well's In Richard Attenborough's film Shadowlands, C. S. The Outline of History and declared that she w as an atheist, "Jack" Lewis and his brother Warren Lewis are portrayed much to the delight of her father. She completed high as a pair of nervous bachelors. In one telling scene, they school at fourteen, graduated from Hunter College at bustle around their home, The Kilns, as they prepare for a nineteen, and finished her masters degree at Columbia visit from Joy Davidman Gresham. Warren paces back University by the time she was twenty-one. and forth from the kitchen, Jack spills an armload of coal Joy tried her hand at teaching, but apparently neither on the rug. As if he were anticipating the most dire of all she nor her students enjoyed the experience. So she turned possible dangers, Warren Lewis predicts, "She'll make to writing, and writing served as her occupation for the you listen to one of her poems, I'll bet you ten bob." He rest of her life. Her son Douglas Gresham has noted, continues, "Then she'll say, 'How do you like it, Mr. "Mother lived more to write than for anything else" (18). Lewis?' and you'll be stumped." Jack grins. "No prob­ lem," he replies. "I'll say, 'Mrs. Gresham, only you could Joy's first book was Letter to a Comrade (1938), a collec­ have written it.'" tion of 45 poems which includes "Snow in Madrid," the poem she recites in the Shadowlands scene above. Stephen Joy arrives at The Kilns with her son Douglas in tow. Vincent Benet praises her in the foreword, saying, "Here is After some preliminary introductions, Warren turns to Joy what an intelligent, sensitive, and vivid mind thinks about and says sweetly, "Jack was particularly hoping you'd in­ itself and the things of the modem world" (7). Letter to a troduce him to your poetry." It's a set up, pure and simple. Comrade won the 1939 Russell Loines Memorial Fund Jack and Joy are evidently embarrassed, then Joy bolsters Award, and that is the award she shared with Robert Frost. her courage by reminding herself — and Jack — that she once shared a national poetry prize with Robert Frost. Two years later, Davidman published her first novel, Then she takes a deep breath and recites a poem she has Anya (1940), which brought her further critical acclaim. written. But it is not the shallow, flowery, sentimental On the merit of these two books, she was invited to partici­ stuff he was expecting. The poem is based on the experi­ pate in MGM's young scriptwriter's program. She grate­ ence of men who died fighting the Spanish Civil War. It is fully accepted and moved from New York to Hollywood. entitled "Snow in Madrid": But her scripts were not well received. She left Southern California somewhat bitter about the experience. Softly, so casual, Lovely, so light, so light. Returning to New7 York, she went on staff as a writer, edi­ The cruel sky lets fall tor, and critic to the communist publication New Masses. Joy Something one does not fight. had become a communist several years before: "I entered the Men before perishing Party with a burst of emotion, without making the slightest See with unwounded eye effort to study Marxist theory. All I knew was that capitalism For once a gentle thing wasn't working very well, war was imminent—and social­ Fall from the sky (40).1 ism promised to change all that" (Soper 19). Jack is silent for a moment. "It's touching," he says quietly. While working full time for New Masses, she edited two more books of poetry. One was a small collection of poems And it is. It is touching. It's an impressive scene, funny, written by fellow communist Alexander Bergman. It was warm, engaging. It establishes early in the film that Joy entitled They Looked Like Men (1943). The other was War Davidman is no ordinary poet. In this paper, I review her Poems of the United Nations (1943), a sizable anthology of considerable accomplishments as a writer and editor. In anti-imperialist war poetry featuring 150 writers from 20 addition, Joy and Jack influenced each other's work in different countries. It included contributions from such many ways, and I describe that influence, particularly luminaries as Carl Sandburg, Stephen Vincent Benet, Boris their close collaboration on the novel Till We Have Faces. Pasternak and Langston Hughes. ATHEIST AND COMMUNIST Joy edited the book, did many of the translations, and Joy Davidman was born into a secular Jewish home, included several of her own poems. Furthermore, when and raised in the Bronx. Enormously intelligent, Joy she had trouble getting contributions from British poets, MYTHLORE I s s u e 8 4 Sum m er 1998 Page 11 she wrote a few more poems herself and published them sleep" (Soper 23). Joy found herself on her knees, pray­ under two pseudonyms: Megan Coombes-Dawson and ing. "I think I must have been the world's most astonished Hayden Weir. She even made up their biographies, de­ atheist" (Soper 23). scribing the fictional Mr. Weir as a soldier who died a he­ Bill Gresham returned several days later. He found roic death in battle early in W orld W ar II (Dorsett 43). Joy remarkably serene; she told her husband about her ex­ MARRIAGE AND MOTHERHOOD perience of God. He expressed that he, too, was interested By the time Joy Davidman reached her thirtieth birthday, in Christianity, and they joined a local Presbyterian she had published a book of original poetry and a novel, tried church. Joy began to read voraciously, trying to make her hand at scriptwriting, edited two books of poetry, and sense of this experience. She writes, "When I read the New was working full-time on the staff of a weekly magazine. Testament, I recognized Him. He was Jesus" (Soper 25). In addition to Bible study and church involvement, Joy She had also married fellow writer William Lindsay and Bill began to read the works of C. S. Lewis Gresham. They had two sons: David was born in March of 1944, and Douglas in Novem ber 1945. W ith m arriage and CORRESPONDENCE motherhood, Davidman lost interest in communism. She The Greshams became good friends with Chad and writes, "My little son was a real thing and so was my obli­ Eva Walsh, fellow writers who were also fans of C. S. gation to him; by comparison, my duty to that imaginary Lewis. Chad Walsh casually mentioned to Joy that Lewis entity the working class seemed the most doubtful of ab­ answered every letter he received; Joy seized the opportu­ stractions" (Soper 22). nity and sent him five single-spaced pages, giving her per­ sonal history, and asking questions about her faith. Her Joy and her husband Bill were avid readers and writ­ letter arrived in England on the 10th of January, 1950; ers. Douglas Gresham remembers, "I was always sur­ Lewis promptly answered, and Joy was ecstatic: rounded by books ... books and writers, and the wide and lively conversation which seemed to be their hallmark" Just got a letter from Lewis in the mail. I think I told you I'd (4). Joy and Bill worked together on many projects, often raised an argument or two on some points? Lord, he knocked my props out from under me unerringly; one shot to a pi­ doing rewrites of books and articles for each other.