Marriage in the Shadowlands: the marriage of C. S. Lewis to Joy Davidman took everyone by surprise. But what an intense and wonderful surprise their marriage became. An MP interview with Lewis's stepson Douglas Gresham.(Interview)

What an unlikely couple! C. S. ("Jack") Lewis was an Oxford professor and author who made a mark on Christianity that few have equaled. His classics include Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and Surprised by Joy, as well as the children's series The Chronicles of Narnia. Joy Davidman, a gifted writer herself, was an American divorced mother of two, former Communist, and convert to Christianity from Judaism. And yet these two shared a fierce tenderness and commitment in their marriage so stunning and powerful that, even 45 years later, it's been the subject of numerous books, as well as the movie Shadowlands, starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.

"We feasted on love," said Lewis, "every mode of it--solemn and merry, romantic and realistic, sometimes as dramatic as a thunderstorm, sometimes as comfortable and unemphatic as putting on your soft slippers." Their marriage would last a mere four years, until Joy's death in 1960, which grieved Lewis so greatly that he survived her only three more years, until his death in November 1963.

One eyewitness to Jack and Joy's marriage was Joy's son Douglas Gresham. Douglas first met Jack when he was 8 years old (his mother married Jack when Douglas was 10) and spent the next 10 years growing a strong bond with the man whom he considered to be "the finest man and best Christian I have ever known."

So moved by the …