The surname of C.S. Lewis’s wife, the American writer he married in 1956, was Davidman.
Joy Davidman was born in New York City in 1915 and became known as a poet, novelist, and essayist. She met Lewis after corresponding with him, and their intellectual friendship developed into a close personal relationship. They entered a civil marriage in 1956 so that Davidman could remain in Britain.
A Christian ceremony followed in 1957 at Oxford’s Church of St Mary the Virgin. Lewis’s relationship with Davidman influenced later accounts of his life and inspired the play and film Shadowlands. Their marriage was brief because Davidman died of cancer in 1960.
Lewis had previously written extensively about friendship, love, grief, and Christian commitment. After Davidman’s death, he published A Grief Observed under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk. The book records his painful response to bereavement and is not a conventional biography of Davidman.