The Inklings : C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Their Friends

Ballantine Books, New York, first edition thus, 1981. Laminated illustrated wrappers, 8vo, 20 cm,. x, 324 pp, 16 ills. From the preface: "C. S. Lewis died in 1963, J. R. R. Tolkien in 1973, Charles Williams in 1945. In recent years the books of the first two have been immensely popular on both sides of the Atlantic, while Williams, though his name is far less well known, continues to exercise a considerable fascination to those who have encountered his writings. These three men knew each other well. Lewis and Tolkien met in 1926 and soon achieved an intimacy which lasted for many years. Around them gathered a group of friends, many of them Oxford dons, who referred to themselves informally and half jestingly as *The Inklings’. When in 1939 Charles Williams found himself obliged to move from London to Oxford he was quickly taken into this circle, and was on close terms with Lewis and the others until his death. The Inklings achieved a certain fame - or even notoriety, for they had their detractors - during the lifetime of the group. And when some years later it was noted that The Lord of the Rings, The Screwtape Letters, and All Hallows' Eve (to name but three of many books) had this in common, that they were first read aloud to the Inklings, it became something of a fashion to study the writings of Lewis, Tolkien, and Williams on the assumption that they were members of a clearly defined literary group with a common aim. Such an assumption may or may not stand up to serious investigation. But in the meanwhile there has been no attempt to write any collective biography of the Inklings. This book tries to fill that gap. It is based largely on unpublished material, and I am much in the debt of the various people who have made this material available to me. Inside wrappers browned at edges, contents agetoned, otherwise Good.