Inklings

{{Short description|Informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford, England}} {{About|a literary group|the video game characters|Inklings (Splatoon){{!}}Inklings (''Splatoon'')|the 1978 book|The Inklings (book){{!}}''The Inklings'' (book)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Use British English Oxford spelling|date=November 2017}}

[[File:Oxford_magdalen_college_new_building.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The New Building at Magdalen College. The Inklings met in C. S. Lewis's rooms, above the arcade on the right side of the central block.]]

'''The Inklings''' were an informal literary discussion group associated with J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis at the University of Oxford for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949.{{sfn|Kilby|Mead|1982|p=230}} The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction and encouraged the writing of fantasy. The best-known, apart from Tolkien and Lewis, were Charles Williams, and (although a Londoner) Owen Barfield.

== Members ==

[[File:Birdandbaby.jpg|thumb|right|The Eagle and Child pub (commonly known as the Bird and Baby or simply just the Bird) in Oxford where the Inklings met informally on Tuesday mornings during term.]]

The more regular members of the Inklings, many of them academics at the university, included:

{{div col}} * Owen Barfield<ref name="Glyer 2019">{{cite journal |last=Glyer |first=Diana Pavlac |title=Surprised by friendship |url=https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/inklings-surprised-by-friendship |date=2019 |journal=Christian History |issue=132 |access-date=9 November 2024}}</ref> * Lord David Cecil<ref name="Glyer 2019"/> * Hugo Dyson<ref name="Glyer 2019"/>{{sfn|Carpenter|2023|loc=Letter #71 to Christopher Tolkien, 25 May 1944}} * Adam Fox{{sfn|Carpenter|2023|loc=Letter #28 to Stanley Unwin, 4 June 1938}} * Robert Havard<ref name="Christian History 1985"/> (Lewis's and Tolkien's doctor, dubbed "Useless Quack" by Warren Lewis){{sfn|Glyer|2007|p=12}} * C. S. Lewis<ref name="Glyer 2019"/> * Warren Lewis (C. S. Lewis's elder brother)<ref name="Glyer 2019"/> * J. R. R. Tolkien<ref name="Glyer 2019"/> * Christopher Tolkien (J. R. R. Tolkien's son)<ref name="Glyer 2019"/> * Charles Williams<ref name="Glyer 2019"/> {{div col end}}

Less frequent visitors included:

{{div col}} * Nevill Coghill<ref name="Christian History 1985">{{cite journal |last1=no byline |title=The Inklings |journal=Christian History |date=1985 |issue=7 |url=https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/lewis-inklings}}</ref> * James Dundas-Grant{{sfn|Kilby|Mead|1982|p=230}} * Colin Hardie<ref>{{cite web |last=Bailey |first=Cyril |title=Hardie, William Ross (1862–1916) |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33698 |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=9 November 2024}}</ref> * Gervase Mathew<ref>{{cite journal |last=Chadwick |first=Henry |date=May 1976 |title=Obituary: Gervase Mathew |journal=New Blackfriars |volume=57 |issue=672 |pages=194–196 |doi=10.1111/j.1741-2005 |doi-broken-date=1 July 2025 |jstor=43246551}}</ref> * R. B. McCallum{{sfn|Kilby|Mead|1982|p=230}} * Courtenay Edward Stevens<ref>{{cite ODNB |last1=Plaskitt |first1=Emma |title=Inklings (act. 1930–1960) |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-92544 |year=2006 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/92544|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8}}</ref> * John Wain{{sfn|Carpenter|1979|p=216}} * Charles Leslie Wrenn{{sfn|Kilby|Mead|1982|p=230}} * George Temple<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last1= Hollings |editor-first1= Christopher |editor-last2= McCartney |editor-first2= Mark |title= Oxford's Sedleian Professors of Natural Philosophy | publication-place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press | publication-date=2023 |page=188 }}</ref> {{div col end}}

Guests included:

* Roy Campbell{{sfn|Carpenter|2023|loc=Letter #83 to Christopher Tolkien, 6 October 1944}} * E. R. Eddison{{sfn|Carpenter|2023|loc=Letter #73 to Christopher Tolkien, 10 June 1944}}

==Meetings==

[[File:Eagle and Child (interior).jpg|thumb|right|300px|A corner of The Eagle and Child pub, formerly the landlord's sitting-room where Lewis's friends, including Inklings members, informally gathered on Tuesday mornings. There is a small display of memorabilia.]]

"Properly speaking," wrote Warren Lewis, "the Inklings was neither a club nor a literary society, though it partook of the nature of both. There were no rules, officers, agendas, or formal elections."<ref>{{cite book |first=Bruce L. |last=Edwards |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-e1V5QrT-P8C&q=the+Inklings+was+neither+a+club+for+a+literary+society%2C+though+it+partook+of+the+nature+of+both.+There+were+no+rules%2C+officers%2C+agendas%2C+or+formal+elections&pg=PA279 |title=CS Lewis: Apologist, philosopher, and theologian |year=2007 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=9780275991197}}</ref> As was typical for university groups in their time and place, the Inklings were all male. Readings and discussions of the members' unfinished works were the principal purposes of meetings. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'',<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Inklings|title=Inklings {{!}} literary group|work=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=2017-08-02|language=en}}</ref> Lewis's ''Out of the Silent Planet'', and Williams's ''All Hallows' Eve'' were among the novels first read to the Inklings. Tolkien's fictional Notion Club (see "Sauron Defeated") was based on the Inklings. Meetings were not all serious; the Inklings amused themselves by having competitions to see who could read the notoriously bad prose of Amanda McKittrick Ros for the longest without laughing.<ref>{{Citation | url=http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article.aspx?co=0&ca=0&to=0&sca=0&articleID=2393&navID=0 | title=Culture Northern Ireland | contribution=War of Words over World's Worst Writer | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312052952/http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article.aspx?co=0&ca=0&to=0&sca=0&articleID=2393&navID=0 | archive-date=12 March 2007}}.</ref>

The name was associated originally with a society of Oxford University's University College, initiated by the then undergraduate Edward Tangye Lean around 1931, for the purpose of reading aloud unfinished compositions. The society consisted of students and dons, among them Tolkien and Lewis. When Lean left Oxford in 1933, the society ended, and Tolkien and Lewis transferred its name to their group at Magdalen College. On the association between the two 'Inklings' societies, Tolkien later said "although our habit was to read aloud compositions of various kinds (and lengths!), this association and its habit would in fact have come into being at that time, whether the original short-lived club had ever existed or not."{{sfn|Carpenter|2023|loc=letter #298 to William Luther White, 11 September 1967}}

Until late 1949, Inklings readings and discussions were usually held on Thursday evenings in C. S. Lewis's rooms at Magdalen. The Inklings and friends also gathered informally on Tuesdays at midday at a local public house, The Eagle and Child, familiarly and alliteratively known in the Oxford community as The Bird and Baby, or simply The Bird.<ref>{{cite web |title=Eagle & Child pub |website=Headington |url=http://www.headington.org.uk/oxon/stgiles/tour/west/48_49_eagle.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305013616/http://headington.org.uk/oxon/stgiles/tour/west/48_49_eagle.htm |archive-date=5 March 2016}}.</ref> The publican, Charlie Blagrove, let Lewis and friends use his private parlour for privacy; the wall and door separating it from the public bar were removed in 1962.{{sfn|Carpenter|1979|p=149}} During the war years, beer shortages occasionally rendered the Eagle and Child unable to open and the group instead met at other pubs, including the White Horse and the Kings Arms.<ref>{{cite journal |title=When did the Inklings meet? A chronological survey of their gatherings: 1933–1954 |last=King |first=D. W. |journal=Journal of Inklings Studies |year=2020 |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=184–204 |doi=10.3366/ink.2020.0079 |s2cid=226364975 }}</ref>

== Legacy ==

The Marion E. Wade Center, at Wheaton College, Illinois, has holdings on the Inklings Owen Barfield, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and Charles Williams. These include letters, manuscripts, audio and video tapes, artwork, dissertations, periodicals, photographs, and related materials. It publishes the journal ''VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center'' on Inklings topics.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wheaton.edu/academics/academic-centers/wadecenter/publications/vii-journal/|title=VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center|website=Wheaton College|language=en|access-date=2019-01-26}}</ref> The Mythopoeic Society, with its journal ''Mythlore'', is a literary organization devoted to the study of mythopoeic literature, particularly the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams; it was founded by Glen GoodKnight in 1967 and incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1971.<ref name="LA Times 2010">{{cite news |last=Nelson |first=Valerie J. |title=Glen Howard GoodKnight II dies at 69; Tolkien enthusiast founded the Mythopoeic Society |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-glen-goodknight-20101114-story.html |access-date=29 September 2020 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=14 November 2010}}</ref> A journal that focuses specifically on the Inklings is ''Journal of Inklings Studies'' (founded in 2011).<ref name="Croft 2016">{{cite journal |last=Croft |first=Janet Brennan |author-link=Janet Brennan Croft |year=2016 |title=Bibliographic Resources for Literature Searches on J.R.R Tolkien |journal=Journal of Tolkien Research |volume=3 |issue=1 |at=Article 2 |url=https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol3/iss1/2}}</ref>

== In fiction ==

Three of the best-known members of the Inklings – Tolkien, Lewis, and Williams – are the main characters of James A. Owen's fantasy series, ''The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica'', while Warren Lewis and Hugo Dyson are recurring minor characters throughout the series. The existence and founding of the organization are also alluded to in the third novel, ''The Indigo King''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/james-a-owen/indigo-king/|title=The Indigo King |publisher=Kirkus Reviews |access-date=12 November 2025}}</ref>

== References ==

== Sources ==

* {{cite book |last=Carpenter |first=Humphrey |author-link=Humphrey Carpenter |title=The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Their Friends |year=1979 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=0-395-27628-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/inklingscslewisj00carp }} * {{ME-ref|Letters}}  * {{cite book |last=Glyer |first=Diana Pavlac |author-link=Diana Pavlac Glyer |title=The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-87338-890-0|publisher=Kent State University Press}} * {{cite book |editor1-last=Kilby |editor1-first=Clyde S. |editor1-link=Clyde S. Kilby |editor2-last=Mead |editor2-first=Marjorie Lamp |title=Brothers and Friends: The Diaries of Major Warren Hamilton Lewis |publisher=Harper & Row |location=San Francisco |year=1982 |isbn=0-06-064575-X}}

== Further reading ==

* {{cite book |last1=Duriez |first1=Colin |author1-link=Colin Duriez |last2=Porter |first2=David |title=The Inklings Handbook: The Lives, Thought and Writings of CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and their Friends |year=2001 |publisher=Azure |isbn=1-902694-13-9 |ref=none}} * {{cite book |last1=Duriez |first1=Colin |author1-link=Colin Duriez |title=Tolkien and CS Lewis: The Gift of Friendship |year=2003 |publisher=Paulist Press |isbn=1-58768-026-2 |ref=none}} * {{cite book |last=Glyer |first=Diana Pavlac |author-link=Diana Pavlac Glyer |title=Bandersnatch: CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings |year=2015 |publisher=Kent State University Press |isbn=9781606352762 |ref=none}} * {{cite book |last=Knight |first=Gareth |title=The Magical World of the Inklings |date=Oct 2010 |isbn=978-1-908011-01-5 |publisher=Skylight |edition=new & expanded |others=Barfield, Owen (foreword) |ref=none}} * {{cite book |editor1-last=Segura |editor1-first=Eduardo |editor2-last=Honegger |editor2-first=Thomas |title=Myth and Magic: Art According to the Inklings |publisher=Walking Tree Publishers |year=2007 |isbn=978-3-905703-08-5 |ref=none}} * {{cite book |last1=Zaleski |first1=Philip |last2=Zaleski |first2=Carol |year=2015 |title=The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams |location=New York |publisher=Farrar, Straus, and Giroux |isbn=978-0374154097 |ref=none}}

== External links ==

* {{cite book |url=https://inklings-studies.org/ |title=Journal of Inklings Studies |place=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press}}, peer-reviewed & academic. * {{cite web |url=http://cslewisblog.com/ |title=Further Up and Further In |access-date=8 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130302033439/http://cslewisblog.com/ |archive-date=2 March 2013 |url-status=dead }}, a CS Lewis and Inklings resource blog. * {{cite web |url=http://www.mythsoc.org/inklings/ |title=An Inklings bibliography |publisher=The Mythopoeic Society |access-date=8 June 2010 |archive-date=23 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080923130138/http://www.mythsoc.org/inklings/ |url-status=dead }}. * {{cite web |url=https://www.inklings-gesellschaft.de/ |title=Inklings gesellschaft |language=de |trans-title=Inklings Society}} * {{cite web |url=https://www.wheaton.edu/wadecenter |title=Marion E. Wade Center |type=research collection | publisher=Wheaton}} * {{cite web |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/search?q=Inklings+%28act.+1930%E2%80%931960%29 |title=Inklings |website=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography}}

Category:Inklings Category:English literary movements Category:1930s establishments in England Category:1950s disestablishments in England Category:Literary societies Category:History of the University of Oxford Category:Culture of the University of Oxford Category:C. S. Lewis Category:J. R. R. Tolkien Category:Writing circles Category:Arts organizations established in the 1930s Category:Literary_circles Category:20th century in Oxford