Who was C.S. Lewis’s wife, the American writer Joy Davidman?

C.S. Lewis’s wife was the American writer Joy Davidman.

Lewis and Davidman first met in person in 1952 after corresponding for several years. They entered a civil marriage in 1956, and a Christian marriage ceremony followed in 1957 at Oxford’s Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin.

Their relationship became known publicly through biographies, memoirs, and dramatizations, including the film Shadowlands. Davidman had two sons from her earlier marriage, and Lewis became closely involved in family life with them.

Davidman died of cancer in 1960. Lewis later wrote A Grief Observed, an intensely personal work about bereavement, initially published under a pseudonym. The couple’s marriage is sometimes dated only to 1957, but the legal civil marriage occurred in 1956.