Shadowlands, the movie

Monday evening at Lakeside we enjoyed the movie Shadowlands about C.S. Lewis and his wife Joy at Orchestra Hall (movie theatre) where I sat with Barbara Martin. It had been raining very hard, so my tarp was actually occupying the seat between us. Our book club had read a fictionalized account of Joy Davidson Gresham several years ago, but I wasn't terribly familiar with their story. I noticed that one son had been left out of the story of their friendship, marriage and her death. So last night at an art show I asked Barbara about it, and she told me of the unfortunate life of the older son David and why he was left out of the story. Today she sent me this link which explains a lot, in case you saw Shadowlands. Douglas Gresham, the stepson of Lewis, has had a very interesting life, and survived some very difficult times.

An Untold Tragedy: Douglas Gresham and C.S. Lewis’s Final Years – The European Conservative

C.S. Lewis tried to help his schizophrenic step-son | The Bridgehead
I wrote about Douglas and his life with Lewis in a 2017 blog. Collecting My Thoughts: C. S. Lewis’ son Douglas Gresham

Plot of Shadowlands (from Wikipedia)

"In the 1950s, the reserved, middle-aged bachelor C. S. Lewis is an Oxford University academic at Magdalen College and author of The Chronicles of Narnia series of children's books. He meets the married American poet Joy Davidman Gresham and her young son Douglas on their visit to England, not yet knowing the circumstances of Gresham's troubled marriage.

What begins as a formal meeting of two very different minds slowly develops into a feeling of connection and love. Lewis finds his quiet life with his brother Warnie disrupted by the outspoken Gresham, whose uninhibited behaviour sharply contrasts with the rigid sensibilities of the male-dominated university. Each provides the other with new ways of viewing the world.

Initially, their marriage is one of convenience, a platonic union designed to allow Gresham to remain in England. But when she is diagnosed with cancer, deeper feelings surface, and Lewis' beliefs are tested as his wife tries to prepare him for her death."

C. S. Lewis’ son Douglas Gresham

Douglas Gresham being interviewed about his step-father, C.S. Lewis:  “I mean, for Jack (Lewis) to even imagine a world in which millions upon millions of babies are slaughtered before they’re even born, simply because they’re too young to defend themselves, that sort of horror Jack would have attributed to hell, not to earth at all. So I think he’d find it difficult to live in today’s world as many of us who care about people and care about the world do. But it’s difficult for me to put words into his mouth, of course, I wouldn’t try to do so.”

Following his mother’s death in 1960 and Lewis’ death in 1963, Douglas and his brother David inherited Lewis’ estate.  Douglas Gresham is an actor, writer, produces films, lives in Malta and is a Christian.  His brother David is an orthodox Jew.  http://bustedhalo.com/features/busted-douglas-gresham

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/17/surprised-by-c-s-lewis-why-his-popularity-endures/comment-page-5/  Scroll down for photo of Gresham. “Gresham, though, snorts at the suggestion that his mother damaged Lewis’ friendship with Tolkien. “It never happened,” he says. Gresham says that when he went to visit Lewis in the hospital during his last days, he saw Tolkien. Tolkien told him he could live with him if anything happened to Lewis, Gresham says.”