Sheldon Vanauken (1914–1996)

For fans of C.S. Lewis and deep thinking, this spiritual autiobiography is one that will stay with the reader long after he or she puts it down. In it the author relates the events of his life, mainly dealing with his deep love for his wife, Davy, and their resolve to create an unbreakable love. They thought long and deep about what it would take to make their bond unbreakable, even resolving to not have children and to follow one another into death. But that was before their journey to England, to Oxford, and their aquaintance with a vibrant Christian community, and with C.S. Lewis. As they seperately and then jointly begin lives of faith, they also wrestle with what that means for their lives, their careers, their friendships, and their marriage. Nothing tests the author quite so much as when Davy gets gravely ill. It is then that the words of C.S. Lewis in letters help and comfort him as he comes to terms with the "severe mercy" that they have been given.… (more)

This book is dear to me, as it's one of the first my fiance and I shared. It's the spiritual autobiography of the love between Sheldon Vanauken and his wife Jean ("Davy"), and it is probably the most heartbreakingly beautiful book I have ever read. It tells the story of their love from idealistic courtship days to World War II to graduate studies at Yale and Oxford, to Davy's illness and eventual death in Lynchburg and Charlottesville, Virginia. Most significantly, it recounts their conversion to Christianity and befriending of C.S. Lewis while in England. The sometimes-agonizing transformation of their love after they became Christians has impacted me deeply as I have contemplated marriage. I've read it twice within the past year and come away always with a longing for a cruciform love that is turned outward toward Christ and the world rather than inward upon itself.… (more)