A GROUP OF WHOSE WRITERS LITERARY THE FANTASIES STILL FIRE IMAGINATION OFALL WHO THOSE SEEK A TRUTH BEYOND Lewis C.S. J.R.R.Tolkien CharlesWilliams and their friends Humphrey Carpenter $10.95 "There goes C. S. Lewis, it must be Tuesday/7 must have been uttered more thanonceas Lewis was spotted enteringhisfavoriteOxfordpub, The Eagle and Child (locallyreferredtoas "The Bird and Baby") with R. R. J. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and their friends. They gathered there once a weekforabeer, andonThursdayeve- nings they would go to Lewis7rooms at Magdalen College to talk philoso- phy and read aloud from the books they were writing at the time. To- gether they were known as the "Inklings." And it was before these "Inklings" that Tolkien first read his Lord of the Rings and Lewis his Screwtape Letters. Now Humphrey Carpenter, author of the widelyacclaimed biography of Tolkien, has written the first collec- tive biography of these remarkable friends and scholars. Theywere very much of their period—that strange waiting time between two world wars.Andyetintheprotectedatmos- phere of Oxford, an academic oasis, it was possible to live in a corner of the world where the finer points of Anglo Saxon could still be absorbing and where speculations on the theol- ogyof the Christian Churchcould be pursued with as much zeal and ideal- ism as the Spanish Civil War. g Perhaps it was this almost eccen- s trie detachment that gave to their continued on hack flap W/U( y . A THE INKLINGS Also by Humphrey Carpenter A Thames Companion (with mari prichard) Tolkien: A Biography THE INKLINGS C. S. Lewis, R. R. Tolkien, J. Charles Williams, and theirfriends by Humphrey Carpenter Boston HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 1979 — — First American Edition 1979 Copyright<c) 1978 by GeorgeAllen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd. This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission inwriting from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Carpenter, Humphrey. The Inklings. Bibliography: p. Includes index. — 1. Lewis, Clive Staples, 1898-1963 Friends and associates. 2. Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel, 1892-1973 Frien—ds and associates. 3. Williams, Charles, 1886- 1945 Friend—s and associates. 4. Auth—ors, English 20th centur—y Biography. 5.—Oxford Biography. 6. England Intellectual life 20th century. I. Title. PR6023.E926Z613 1979 823'.9'12 [B] 78-26042 ISBN 0-395-27628-4 Printed in the United States of America V 987654321 10