... (Jack's brother Major Warren H Lewis) and … McALLEN - Ronnie Gresham, 41, a former longtime Hereford resident, died Thursday, March 25, 1999. This was not straightforward in the Church of England at the time, because she was divorced, but a friend and Anglican priest, Reverend Peter Bide,[34] performed the ceremony at Davidman's hospital bed on 21 March 1957. After many years in Tasmania, Australia, he now lives in County Carlow, Ireland. Lewis' literary estates, and is one of the producers of The Chronicles of Narnia film franchise. He became familiar with Lewis around the time his mom married the Christian writer … She was born in East Peoria on December 12, 1929 to Crofton and Mary Lee (Douglas) Gresham. [15] Davidman wrote that her husband had telephoned her, one day in spring 1946, telling her that he was having a nervous breakdown, and did not know when he would return home. Services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Rest Lawn Memorial Park at Hereford. Lewis published A Grief Observed under a pseudonym in 1961, from notebooks he kept after his wife's death revealing his immense grief and a period of questioning God. Douglas Gresham is a Christian like Lewis and his mother, while David Gresham turned to his mother's ancestral faith, becoming Orthodox Jewish in his beliefs. Davidman at first studied Judaism, but decided to study all religions and concluded that "the Redeemer who had made himself known, whose personality I would have recognized among ten thousand—He was Jesus." Brimfield – Sylvia “Rose” Wenger, 90, of Brimfield, passed away on November 4, 2020. Gresham was the son of writers William Lindsay Gresham and Joy Davidman. Lewis agreed to enter into a civil marriage contract with her so that she could continue to live in the UK, telling a friend that "the marriage was a pure matter of friendship and expediency". Wed 3 Oct 2007 19.04 EDT. Douglas Gresham is the son of Joy Davidman, who later married C.S. She was born in East Peoria on December 12, 1929 to Crofton and Mary Lee (Douglas) Gresham. Bill Gresham had become disillusioned with the Communist Party while volunteering in Spain during the Spanish Civil War to fight fascism and influenced Davidman to leave the party after the birth of their sons. Douglas Gresham and his older brother, David, arrived in England in 1953 when their mother left America and a ruined marriage. At Lewis' death in 1963, his estate went to his brother Major Warren Hamilton Lewis. For most of her life she was a homemaker. He went into the Army between 1954-1961. In the film, Gresham is played by the American actor Joseph Mazzello. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joy_Davidman&oldid=997918293#Life_with_William_Lindsay_Gresham, American expatriates in the United Kingdom, American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent, Converts to Anglicanism from atheism or agnosticism, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Bide, Peter (2015). [30][31], The couple continued to live separately after the civil marriage. Gresham has written an autobiography titled Lenten Lands, which chronicles his life from birth to the age of 28 in 1973. [27] Other works that she influenced or helped with include Reflections on the Psalms (1958) and The Four Loves (1960). Helen Joy Davidman was born on 18 April 1915 into a secular middle-class Jewish family in New York City, of Polish-Jewish and Ukrainian-Jewish descent. Young Douglas was just eight years old—and already an enormous Narnia fan —when his mother, Joy Davidman, Christian convert who moved to England from the United States, married C.S. … She was provided with a good education, piano lessons and family vacation trips. "[4], She was my daughter and my mother, my pupil and my teacher, my subject and my sovereign; and always, holding all these in solution, my trusty comrade, friend, shipmate, fellow-soldier. Davidman intended to try to save the marriage, but she agreed to a divorce after a violent encounter with Gresham, who had resumed drinking. C.S. While Douglas Gresham is, like Lewis and his mother, a Christian, David returned to the Orthodox Judaism of their mother's family while still a child in Lewis's home. He now walks freely and fully in the godly heritage he received, living his life to the glory of God and in the service of others. Helen Joy Davidman (18 April 1915 – 13 July 1960) was an American poet and writer. At the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, she was diagnosed with incurable cancer, with bone metastases from breast carcinoma. [4] Douglas Gresham is a Christian, as were Lewis and his mother,[5] while David returned to the Orthodox Judaism of their mother's ancestors while still a child in Lewis's home. [7], Douglas Gresham and his wife, Merrie, lived at Rathvinden House in Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland, before moving to their house in Malta in 2008. Davidman grew up in the Bronx with her younger brother, Howard, and with both parents employed, even during the Great Depression. And field, and forest, as they were Hooper never responded to the charges, but Lewis’s stepson Douglas Gresham came to Hooper’s defense, and a former student, Alistair Fowler, reported talking with … He had just arrived in England with his mother and his brother, and Lewis had invited them to come and stay with him for a few days at the Kilns. Douglas Gresham: My spiritual journey was sort of a strange one I guess in a way. Appears as a character in William Nicholson 's play Shadowlands. [41] The play was transferred successfully to Broadway in 1990–91 with Nigel Hawthorne and Jane Alexander starring, and was also revived in London in 2007. Douglas Gresham remembers well the day that JFK was shot. They had two sons, David Lindsay Gresham (born 27 March 1944) and Douglas Howard Gresham (born 10 November 1945). [4][5] At an early age, she read George MacDonald's children's books and his adult fantasy book, Phantastes. Like cast off clothes was left behind After his parents' divorce in 1954, he relocated to England with his mother and elder brother. "[33], The relationship between Davidman and C. S. Lewis had developed to the point that they sought a Christian marriage. [4] She had an experience that she described as: "for the first time my pride was forced to admit that I was not, after all, 'the master of my fate'... All my defenses – all the walls of arrogance and cocksureness and self-love behind which I had hid from God – went down momentarily – and God came in. Reflected in a single mind) He … Douglas Gresham (along with his brother, David) became the heir to C.S. The writer's older brother … [46], sfn error: no target: CITEREFLionel1998 (, "Don King (ed. The news from Dallas had stunned pupils during dinner at his boarding school in Surrey. Lewis made an effort to find kosher food for him. She spent Christmas and a fortnight at The Kilns with the brothers. Davidman resigned her teaching position to work full-time in writing and editing. For her book of poems, Letter to a Comrade, she won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition in 1938 and the Russell Loines Award for Poetry in 1939. It was … David Gresham and finally, a trip to Wheaton A friend and I finally were able to get up to the Wade Center a couple of weeks ago. Her acclaimed first novel, Anya was published in 1940. Joy later married author C.S. [3], After finishing high school at Evander Childs High School at fourteen years old,[7] she read books at home until she entered Hunter College in the Bronx at the age of fifteen, earning a BA degree at nineteen. It was at this time that Lewis recognised that he had fallen in love with her, realising how despondent he would feel to lose her. [22] Cynthia Haven speculates that the activities of HUAC might have been a factor in her decision to emigrate and not return, given her political affiliations in the past. She read H. G. Wells's The Outline of History at the age of eight and was able to play a score of Chopin on the piano, after having read it once and not looking at it again. Douglas Howard Gresham (born November 10, 1945)[1] is an American British stage and voice-over actor, biographer, film producer, and executive record producer. The son of Joy Davidman, Douglas watched his mother and “Jack” fall in love and marry. Lewis. Douglas Gresham. After a troubled marriage, and following her conversion to Christianity, they divorced and she left America to travel to England with her sons. He is played by Joseph Mazzello in the film directed by Richard Attenborough. Podcast Discussion. [2], Davidman was a child prodigy, who scored above 150 on IQ testing,[3] with exceptional critical, analytical and musical skills. [4] In 2020, Gresham revealed that his brother David had died several years earlier in a Swiss mental hospital and that his uncle had diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia as a young man.[6]. Joy was the only woman whom he had met... who had a brain which matched his own in suppleness, in width of interest, and in analytical grasp, and above all in humour and a sense of fun. So, yes, I recommend this book to all who love Lewis and his literary work!! The couple became estranged, even though they continued to live together. Davidman's style in these poems showed an influence by Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. He married Rodriguez when the divorce became final in August 1954. Fifty years after his death, C.S. When I contacted Joy’s son, Douglas Gresham, he put me in touch with a cousin, Susan Davidman Cleveland, Joy’s niece and the daughter of Joy’s only brother, Howard. Lewis’, the name on the spines of the books, for the living, breathing man who filled my young life with his presence was ‘Jack’. She planned to finish her book on the Ten Commandments that she had been working on, and which showed influences of Lewis's style of apologetics. Davidman published her best known work, Smoke on the Mountain: An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments, in 1954 with a preface by C. S. Lewis. Has a brother named David Gresham. Prior to this he owned four farms in Tasmania, Australia, with his wife Merrie and their four children. There is no character derived from Douglas' brother David in the film or in the stage play on which the film was based, although both Douglas and David were portrayed as characters in the original teleplay (1985) on which the stage play was based. [10], For her collection of poems, Letter to a Comrade, she won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition in 1938. Both experimented with L. Ron Hubbard's theories of Dianetics and "audited" each other and friends. My mistress; but at the same time all that any man friend (and I have good ones) has ever been to me. There is no character derived from Douglas' brother David in the film or in the stage play on which the film was based, although both Douglas and David … [38][39], Shadowlands is a dramatised version of Davidman's life with C. S. Lewis by William Nicholson which has been filmed twice. Lewis developed a heart condition two years later and went into a coma, from which he recovered, but he died a year later—three years after his wife. [5], The marriage was marred by difficulties that included financial problems, as well as her husband's alcoholism and infidelities. "[4] In 1939, she won the Russell Loines Award for Poetry for this same book of poems. Lewis’ stepsons David and Douglas Gresham.Douglas joined us from his home in Malta to talk about the book, his relationship with the author, and The Logos’s Theatre’s upcoming stage adaptation.Listen below! The book narrates his experiences during this time.... Later on, Davidman married Lewis, and soon after that became seriously ill and died. Lewis. He attended Rockwood Grade School and Gresham Union High School. When Douglas Gresham was eight years old, his mother, Joy Davidman, introduced him and his brother David to the man who would eventually become their stepfather: C. S. Lewis, known to his friends and family as “Jack.” Gresham chronicled this remarkable relationship in Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman & C. S. Lewis(Macmillan, 1988). ), Out of My Bone: The Letters of Joy Davidman", "Books: 'Out of My Bone: The Letters of Joy Davidman, "Shadowlands by William Nicholson Study Guide", "Theater: For C. S. Lewis, Does Love Conquer All? While an atheist and after becoming a member of the American Communist Party, she met and married her first husband and father of her two sons, William Lindsay Gresham, in 1942. She died from metastatic carcinoma involving the bones in 1960. [20], She returned home in January 1953, having received a letter from Gresham that he and her cousin were having an affair and he wanted a divorce. Lewis made an effort to find kosher food for David. The couple went on a belated honeymoon to Wales and then by air to Ireland. Lewis, whom adopted Joy's two sons. He wept with his stepfather when Joy died of cancer, and led the mourners behind the casket when husband followed wife to the graveyard. In October 1956, Davidman was walking across her kitchen when she tripped over the telephone wire and fell to the floor, thereby breaking her left upper leg. "Marrying C. S. Lewis", in, This page was last edited on 2 January 2021, at 21:51. [9][37], As a widower, Lewis wrote A Grief Observed which he published under the pseudonym of N. W. Clerk, describing his feelings and paying tribute to his wife. The civil marriage took place at the register office, 42 St Giles', Oxford, on 23 April 1956. [44], C. S. Lewis wrote an epitaph originally on the death of Charles Williams; he adapted it to place on his wife's grave. Lewis vividly. Born Jewish and raised atheist, Joy embraced first communism and then Christianity. CS Lewis and his Stepsons Douglas Gresham is the last person living who knew C. S. Lewis well. After several lunch meetings and walks accompanying Davidman and his brother, Warren Lewis wrote in his diary that "a rapid friendship" had developed between his younger brother and Davidman, whom he described as "a Christian convert of Jewish race, medium height, good figure, horn rimmed specs, quite extraordinarily uninhibited." Gresham came on as executive producer of recording artist Meg Sutherland's debut album in 2014, successfully signing her to Sprig Music in March with producer Christopher Hopper. She wrote at least four, but they were not used and she returned to New York City to work for The New Masses where she wrote a controversial movie column, reviewing Hollywood movies in a manner described as "merciless in her criticisms." She joined the American Communist Party in 1938. Douglas Gresham found his way. Gresham's mother died of cancer in 1960, and Lewis continued to raise Douglas and his elder brother David. Read more. [5][9] Bill Gresham had become disillusioned with the Communist Party while volunteering in Spain during the Spanish Civil War to fight fascism[14] and influenced Davidman to leave the party after the birth of their sons. PHOTOS FROM LUNA GRIÑO-INOCIAN. He has written an autobiography titled Lenten Lands, … She was the author of several books, including two novels. Lewis and moved into “The Kilns,” the home Lewis shared with his brother, Warnie, in Oxford, England. She helped Lewis with his writing, organised his financial records and wardrobe, and had the house renovated and redecorated. It sold 3,000 copies, double that of US sales. [20][21], Confessing to be a "complete Anglomaniac", Davidman returned to England with her sons in November 1953. She was chosen by Stephen Vincent Benét, who commended Davidman for her "varied command of forms and a bold power. Her cousin Renée Rodriguez had moved into the Gresham home and was keeping house for the family while she was away. Douglas Howard Gresham is an American British stage and voice-over actor, biographer, film producer, and executive record producer. Sentence of death has been passed on Joy, and the end is only a matter of time. “Jack helped my brother through all sorts of difficulties in education and so forth,” Douglas told me. First of all, Jack became a friend, because he was a friend of my mother's. During the marriage, Gresham wrote his most famous work Nightmare Alley in 1946, while Davidman did freelance work and cared for the house and children. The couple were separated in 1954, and Joy moved to England with her two sons. [5][9][10] In 1936, after several of Davidman's poems were published in Poetry, editor Harriet Monroe asked her to work for the magazine as reader and editor. Though Davidman was deeply in love with Lewis, there was no reciprocation on his side. In 1948, they became members of the Pleasant Plains Presbyterian Church. You would be surprised (or perhaps you would not?) [29], In 1956, Davidman's visitor's visa was not renewed by the Home Office, requiring that she and her sons return to America. They have five children: three sons, James, Timothy, and Dominick, and two daughters, Lucinda, and Melodie. [18] Gresham had at first similar Christian convictions as Joy, but soon rejected them; he continued to have extramarital affairs and developed an interest in tarot cards and the I Ching. Although much of her work during this period reflected her politics as a member of the American Communist Party, this volume of poetry was much more than implied by the title, and contained forty-five poems written in traditional and free verse that were related to serious topics of the time such as the Spanish Civil War, the inequalities of class structure and male-female relationship issues. He wept with his stepfather when Joy died of cancer, and led the mourners behind the casket when husband followed wife to the graveyard. He fired rifles into the ceiling to relieve his tension and once broke a bottle on their son Douglas' head. The relationship that developed between Davidman and Lewis has been featured in a television BBC film, a stage play, and a theatrical film named Shadowlands. [36], Upon leaving the hospital a week later, she was taken to The Kilns and soon enjoyed a remission from the cancer. to know how much of a strange sort of happiness and even gaiety there is between us. Lewis paid the school fees and found Davidman and her sons a house in Oxford close to The Kilns. [4][19], Davidman had become interested in C. S. Lewis while still in America. The Major in turn passed the estate to Douglas and David ten years later. In April 1960, Lewis took Davidman on a holiday to Greece to fulfil her lifelong wish to visit there, but her condition worsened quickly upon return from the trip, and she died on 13 July 1960. "[6] A sickly child, suffering from a crooked spine, scarlet fever and anaemia throughout her school years, and attending classes with much older classmates, she later referred to herself at this time as being "bookish, over-precocious and arrogant". Neil was born in Portland, Oregon on July 20, 1935 to Douglas and Faye Horton. "[5] When Gresham did return home, the couple began to look to religion for answers. Douglas “Neil” Horton. I was an atheist and the daughter of an atheist". [35] The marriage did not win wide approval among Lewis's social circle, and some of his friends and colleagues avoided the new couple. His mother's writings had featured the Jews in an unsympathetic manner, particularly one " shohet " (ritual slaughterer). Douglas Gresham is the last person living who knew C. S. Lewis well. Gresham was born in 1945 to American writer Joy Davidman. Gresham's mother had become friends with C. S. Lewis through correspondence, and the friendship blossomed, eventually leading to marriage in 1956. By Jonathon Van Maren Douglas Gresham remembers the day he first met C.S. Neil of Gresham, Oregon passed away on Friday May 8th 2020. He is one of the two stepsons of C. S. Lewis. It was also performed in London as an award-winning stage play in 1989–90. ! While Douglas is still a devout Christian, his brother David returned to Judaism after the death of their mother. Douglas Gresham acknowledged in an interview on November 15th, 2005, on NPR that he and his brother are estranged, although in another interview on December 4th, 2005, he did say they are in email contact. The chronicles of Narnia film franchise passed the estate to Douglas and his stepsons Douglas Gresham: spiritual. Stage and voice-over actor, biographer, film producer, and Melodie have!, 1950 house renovated and redecorated alcoholism and infidelities now lives in County Carlow, Ireland, the relationship Davidman. 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