Editing Joy Davidman (section)

==Early life==
Helen Joy Davidman was born on 18 April 1915 into a secular middle-class [[Jewish]] family in New York City of Polish-Jewish and Russian-Jewish descent. Her parents, Joseph Davidman and Jeanette Spivack (married 1909), arrived in America in the late 19th century. Davidman grew up in [[the Bronx]] with her younger brother, Howard, and with both parents employed, even during the [[Great Depression]]. She was provided with a good education, piano lessons and family vacation trips.{{sfn |Sibley |1985 |pp= 71–73}} Davidman wrote in 1951: "I was a well-brought-up, right-thinking child of materialism... I was an atheist and the daughter of an atheist".{{sfn|Sibley|1985|p= 72}}

Davidman was a [[child prodigy]], who scored above 150 on [[Intelligence quotient|IQ]] testing,{{sfn |Sibley|1985 |p=75}} with exceptional critical, analytical and musical skills. She read [[H. G. Wells]]'s ''[[The Outline of History]]'' at the age of eight and was able to play a score of [[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]] on the piano after having read it once and not looking at it again.{{sfn|Haven|2006}}{{sfn|Dorsett|2010}} At an early age, she read [[George MacDonald]]'s children's books and his adult fantasy book, ''[[Phantastes]]''.  She wrote about the influence of these stories: "They developed in me a lifelong taste for fantasy, which led me years later to C. S. Lewis, who in turn led me to religion."{{sfn |Sibley |1985 |p= 74}} A sickly child, suffering from a [[crooked spine]], [[scarlet fever]] and [[pernicious anemia|anemia]] throughout her school years, and attending classes with much older classmates, she later referred to herself at this time as being "bookish, over-precocious and arrogant".{{sfn|Sibley|1985|p= 75}}

After finishing high school at [[Evander Childs Educational Campus|Evander Childs High School]] at fourteen years old,{{sfn|Sibley|1985|p=76}} she read books at home until she entered [[Hunter College]] in the Bronx at the age of fifteen, earning a BA degree at nineteen.{{sfn|Sibley|1985|p=78}} In 1935, she received a master's degree in [[English literature]] from [[Columbia University]] in three semesters, while also teaching at [[Roosevelt High School (Roosevelt, New York)|Roosevelt High School]].{{sfn|Dorsett|2010}}<ref name= "wheaton">{{cite web|url= http://www.wheaton.edu/wadecenter/Collections-and-Services/Collection%20Listings/~/media/Files/Centers-and-Institutes/Wade-Center/RR-Docs/Finding%20Aids/L-Davidman.pdf |title=Joy Davidman Papers 1926–1964 |publisher= Wheaton |access-date=9 December 2011}}</ref><ref name="Allego">{{cite web|url= http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/davidman/bio.htm|title= Joy Davidman Biography|last= Allego|first= Donna M.|publisher= Illinois U|access-date= 8 December 2011|archive-date= 22 April 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160422081602/http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/davidman/bio.htm|url-status= dead}}</ref> In 1936, after several of Davidman's poems were published in ''[[Poetry (magazine)|Poetry]]'', editor [[Harriet Monroe]] asked her to work for the magazine as reader and editor.  Davidman resigned her teaching position to work full-time in writing and editing.{{sfn|Dorsett|2010}}

During the Great Depression, several incidents, including witnessing the suicide of a hungry orphan jumping off a roof at Hunter College, are said to have caused her to question the fairness of capitalism and [[economy of the United States|the American economic system]]. She joined the [[Communist Party USA|American Communist Party]] in 1938.<ref name="Allego" />

For her collection of poems, ''Letter to a Comrade'', she won the [[Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition]] in 1938. She was chosen by [[Stephen Vincent Benét]], who commended Davidman for her "varied command of forms and a bold power."{{sfn|Haven|2006}}  In 1939, she won the [[Russell Loines Award for Poetry]] for this same book of poems. Although much of her work during this period reflected her politics as a member of the American Communist Party, this volume of poetry was much more than implied by the title, and contained forty-five poems written in traditional and [[free verse]] that were related to serious topics of the time such as the [[Spanish Civil War]], the inequalities of class structure and male-female relationship issues. Davidman's style in these revealed the influence of [[Walt Whitman]]'s ''[[Leaves of Grass]]''.<ref name="Allego" />

She was employed by [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] in 1939 for a six-month stay in Hollywood writing movie scripts.  She wrote at least four, but they were not used and she returned to New York City to work for ''[[The New Masses]]'', where she wrote a controversial movie column, reviewing Hollywood movies in a manner described as "merciless in her criticisms."  Her acclaimed first novel, ''Anya'' was published in 1940.{{sfn |Sibley|1985 |pp= 88–91}}<ref name= "montreat">{{cite web |url= http://www.montreat.edu/AcademicsatMontreat/EnglishLanguages/Faculty/DonKing/JoyDavidmanProject/tabid/1307/ |title= Joy Davidman Project |publisher= Montreat |last= King |first= Don |access-date= 7 December 2011 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Between 1941 and 1943, she was employed as a book reviewer and poetry editor for ''The New Masses'' with publications in many of the issues.{{sfn|Tonning|2010|pp=36-37}}