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

The Inklings: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and Their Friends
Humphrey Carpenter

Critically acclaimed, award-winning biography of CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien and the brilliant group of writers to come out of Oxford during the Second World War.C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and their friends were a regular feature of the Oxford scenery in the years during and after the Second World War. They drank beer on Tuesdays at the ‘Bird and Baby’, and on Thursday nights they met in Lewis’ Magdalen College rooms to read aloud from the books they were writing; jokingly they called themselves ‘The Inklings’.C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien first introduced The Screwtape Letters and The Lord of the Rings to an audience in this company and Charles Williams, poet and writer of supernatural thrillers, was another prominent member of the group.Humphrey Carpenter, who wrote the acclaimed biography of J.R.R. Tolkien, draws upon unpublished letters and diaries, to which he was given special access, in this engrossing story.

The Inklings

C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien,

Charles Williams and their friends

Humphrey Carpenter

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_86692a83-0e5e-53b1-aabf-1fab54c706a0)

HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

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This edition 2006

First published in Great Britain by George Allen and Unwin 1978

Copyright © George Allen and Unwin (Publishers) Ltd 1978, 1981

Humphrey Carpenter asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780007748693

Ebook Edition © MAY 2017 ISBN: 9780007381241

Version: 2017-05-12

Signatures of some of the Inklings, sent to Dr Warfield M. Firor in 1948, after he had given them a ham (by permission of the Trustees of C.S. Lewis)

DEDICATION (#ulink_46169b69-56c0-5144-b366-18057136be47)

Dedicated to the memory of

the late Major W. H. Lewis

(‘Warnie’)

CONTENTS

Cover (#uc3d15b16-798d-5941-8cbf-8868dae4158a)

Title Page (#u7afc203c-d01b-55e2-b394-4948959935bf)

Copyright (#ulink_adb04e06-ef15-567f-aba2-e5476660ce41)

Dedication (#ulink_97e311f3-3fc5-580e-be30-ac3e7d32c658)

Preface (#ulink_19af1edf-3bc8-566e-aad3-ec75e161c22c)

Part One

1 ‘Oh for the people who speak one’s own language’ (#ulink_7cbcdcb7-ce11-5d24-822e-ceb0276a8bf5)

2 ‘What? You too?’ (#ulink_a57898b2-c44a-580e-8807-84df85dc9dc5)

3 Mythopoeia (#ulink_ca5c9cb1-7ab6-52d1-9d05-aa91d4440d71)

4 ‘The sort of thing a man might say’ (#ulink_bf4954d8-147b-59a0-9f0a-2e15e24e01a6)

Part Two

1 C.W. (#ulink_73aedc92-790f-5e5c-bd77-dad9ab02f921)

2 ‘A tremendous flow of words’ (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Three

1 ‘They are good for my mind’ (#litres_trial_promo)

2 ‘We had nothing to say to one another’ (#litres_trial_promo)

3 Thursday evenings (#litres_trial_promo)

4 ‘A fox that isn’t there’ (#litres_trial_promo)

5 ‘Hwæt! we Inclinga’ (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Four

1 ‘No one turned up’ (#litres_trial_promo)

2 Till We Have Faces (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)