By far the two richest sources of information on the Joy's life are "The Longest Way Round," her own description of her conversion to Christianity published in These Found the Way: Thirteen Converts to Protestant Christianity. Ed. David Wesley Soper. (Philadelphia: The Westminister Press, 1951) and Lyle Dorsett's biography of Joy, And God Came In (New York: MacMillan, 1983).

• Born April 18, 1915 into a non-religious Jewish home; parents Joseph and Jeannette; brother 4 years younger, Howard.
  
• Brought up in and around New York City; summer vacations to Maine and other New England sites.
  
• A voracious young reader, encouraged by her father; unfortunately, he was also a perfectionist and held her and Howard to high and almost impossible standards.
  
• In an effort to please her father, she early adopted his atheism; by 12 she was sure she wanted to be a writer.
  
• Suffered from an early thyroid problem and was treated with a primitive radium method that probably caused her bone cancer later in life.
  
• Finished high school at fourteen and entered Hunter College in 1930; began to develop her writing and editing skills.
  
• After graduation ib 1934, taught English in local high schools; awarded a master's degree in English literature from Columbia in 1935.
  
• In 1936 poems published in the prestigious Poetry magazine; befriended by important writers of the day.
  
• In 1938 her volume of poetry, Letter to a Comrade, was published to favorable reviews; won the Loines Memorial award ($1000) for poetry given by the National Institute of Arts and Letters (co-winner was Robert Frost); declared herself a communist and threw herself into the cause as an editor for its magazine, New Masses.
  
• Spent time in 1939 in Hollywood working on screenplays; was not successful but blamed the system rather than herself
  
• In 1940 her novel, Anya, was published.
  
• Spent summers of 1938, 1940, 1941, and 1942 in a writers colony in New Hampshire.
  
• Edited War Poems of the United Nations, a collection of poems with a strong pro-communism bais that was published in 1943.
  
• Met and married Bill Gresham in 1942; became disillusioned with communism and devoted herself to raising her two sons, David (b. 1944) and Douglas (1945).
  
• The marriage was a disaster, primarily because of Bill's alcoholism and infidelity.
  
• Her conversion to theism was the result of a mystical experience (see Dorsett's biography, p. 59); began reading Lewis; after this she converted to Christianity and by 1950 she was corresponding with Lewis.
  
• Her public revelation of her faith (via a magazine article and later a chapter in a book) caused an irrevocable break with her brother.
  
• Novel, Weeping Bay, published in 1950.
  
• Joy and Bill continued to lived together and managed to purchase a large farm house; although Bill claimed to have become a Christian, it didn't last.
  
• Eventually Joy, needing to get away from Bill for a while, visited England in 1952, had several meetings with Lewis and his brother, and finished her Smoke on the Mountain (pub. 1953; Lewis wrote introduction to the British edition).
  
• By 1953, her marriage to Bill over, she returned to England with her two sons.
  
• Lewis became the benefactor of her sons although initially she lived in London in semi-poverty; in 1955 she moved to Oxford to a house rented by Lewis; their relationship blossomed.
  
• Lewis loved her wit, intellect, sense of humor, and sharp mind; in 1955, she helped him overcome a writer's block that resulted in Till We Have Faces.
  
• In April, 1956, Lewis married Joy in a civil ceremony that in effect made her a naturalized British citizen thus preventing immigration officials from deporting her.
  
• In the fall of that year she was diagnosed with bone cancer; in March of 1957, Lewis married Joy in a church sanctioned wedding as she lay dying on her hospital bed
  
• The cancer miraculously went into remission and the two spent three wonderful years together, including trips to Ireland and Greece.
  
• She died July 13, 1960.