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

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Anyone interested in these legendary writers cannot miss out on reading this book (the trick is in FINDING it)! Lewis (d.1963), Tolkien (d.1973) and Williams (d.1945) were, and remain, three of the most profound and influential authors of the 20th Century. Carpenter's book captures the atmosphere of the friendship that existed between these three "Oxonians" as they met to drink beer on Tuesdays at the "Bird & Baby" and read selections from their works in progress. Among the "friends" who can also be considered Inklings we find R.E. Havard, Owen Barfield, Hugo Dyson, Colin Hardie, David Cecil, Lewis's brother Warnie and others that I'm forgetting here. Through Carpenter's excellent book we get to lean in on the banter of unrivalled literary wit and wisdom. Here in "The Inklings" we get as close as possible to an understanding of the depth of these great minds... in these meetings, great works such as The Lord of The Rings, The Screwtape Letters, and All Hallows Eve were read aloud for the first time to the laughter, approval and/or criticism of those at table.
Carpenter's book is very well written, well laid out and had me captivated from start to finish. This book was the worthy winner of the Somerset Maugham Award for Best Biography.

For years, a small number of Oxford dons and fellows, as well as some of their friends, met in a local pub on Tuesdays to drink beer, hold discussions on such matters as mythology, morality, and literature, and read aloud the things they had been writing. Perhaps more important than these meetings were the Thursday night gatherings in the rooms of CS Lewis at Magdalen college. This group, which included such intellectual giants as Lewis, JRR Tolkien, and Charles Williams, was known as "The Inklings."

Much of "The Hobbit," "The Lord of the Rings," and Lewis's Space Trilogy were read in these meetings. Lewis also read much of his apologetic work to the group. The Inklings have had an enormous effect on the world of fantasy and Christian apology, and this biography by Humphrey Carpenter attempts to examine, in detail, just what occurred at these meetings, and what the effect was on those who participated.

Actually, this book is more of a biography on CS Lewis than on the rest of the members. Carpenter, who wrote a separate biography on Tolkien, does not elaborate much on the creator of "The Lord of the Rings", but rather spends most of his time on Lewis, who was, after all, the life of the group. Despite the focus on Lewis, however, there is a large section devoted to the life and times of Charles Williams, another principal member of the group. By using Lewis's life as a narrative, Carpenter is able to explore the composition and disposition of the Inklings as a group, as well as discuss their collective impact on the world of literature, fantasy, and criticism.

This biography is well-written, and covers its subject well. The Inklings were a fascinating group of men, and this book provides much information and detail about the group as a whole that is difficult to glean from a biography which focuses on just one of the members. Unfortunately, this volume is not currently available in the US, and must be obtained either from Amazon.uk or from a used bookseller. Despite the difficulty in obtaining the book, however, this is a fascinating and worthwhile look at the Inklings.

This is a great book but don't be sucked into buying it for 150 dollers goto the UK site and get it for 8 bucks. Ships just as fast.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0261103474/ref=sr_aps_books_1_2/026-5367973-8334817

The first point I have to make is to paraphrase a comment that Tolkien made about "The Lord of the Rings" - it's too short. Not so much that it's sketchy, or leaves anything really important out, but that it is such a nicely written, warm yet at times sharply critical, and compelling work that I just wish there were even more to it.

The book functions in some ways as a sequel to Carpenter's earlier J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, published the previous year (1977). Essentially this volume is a history of the informal Oxford literary group from which the title is taken, which was active from sometime in the 1930s (accurate records weren't kept) through 1963, the year of C.S. Lewis' death. As Lewis was the "founder" of the club, more or less (though it had it's origins earlier in a society that he did not belong to, which ended in 1933), the book begins with and is more largely concerned with him than the other members. The club was never a formal institution, merely a social group that met for most of it's history twice a week - Tuesdays at an Oxford pub called The Eagle and Child (aka The Bird and Baby), and Thursday evenings at the quarters shared by Lewis and his older brother W.H. (Warnie). It wasn't a group that expounded any particularly significant literary theories, and it can't be said as an institution itself to have been particularly influential, so it is really only through the fame of Tolkien, Lewis, and (to a much lesser extent) Charles Williams that it has been remembered, even immortalized.

There are four parts, each divided into a few chapters. The parts are not titled but are easily and simply described: the first part mostly describes the early life and education of Lewis (generally called "Jack") and his meeting Tolkien at Oxford; the second, the early life and entrance of Charles Williams into the society; third, the "height" of the Inklings, which coincides exactly with the Second World War, ending with the death of Williams in 1945; and the fourth part describing Tolkien and Lewis as their literary fame grew (with Lewis' Christian writings and "Narnia" books, and Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings") in the 1950s, Lewis' late marriage to a divorced American poet and novelist named Joy Gresham, and finally the deaths of Joy and shortly afterwards, of Jack. It's the last part that is the least-developed and shortest, and though I wouldn't have minded seeing more space devoted to this period, I can understand that in the context of "the Inklings" as a whole, it's less important.

There are short sketches of other members of the group - men now almost totally forgotten - including Warnie Lewis (a career army officer, and later the author of a half-dozen books about 17th century France), Owen Barfield, David Cecil, Neville Coghill and Hugo Dyson (who achieved some odd cultish status as an actor in PETULIA late in life) - but the bulk of the book is concerned with biographies of Lewis and Williams, and their literary careers and relationships with each other and Tolkien. I'm not sure that Carpenter ever quite solves the question of what made this group so special, what each had to offer the others, and how they influenced each other and why two have remained world-famous while the other has languished in obscurity since his untimely death; but it's not necessarily his intention. This is more history, and to some extent an account of the emotional and spiritual journeys of these men - all conservative Christians though all quite different in their faiths.

It's a fabulous book overall, essential I think to anyone interested in any of these figures; it's definitely spurred my interest in the obscure Charles Williams, whose Arthurian cycle Taliessin Through Logres is reputedly one of the odder and more challenging epic poetry cycles of the past century. Carpenter really paints a beautiful portrait of the often tortured and morose Lewis, his struggles with faith and with his own irascible nature and the reactionary and progressive sides of his very divided nature. The book doesn't come off as being written from a particular religious perspective - I couldn't tell you if the author was a man of faith himself or not - and Carpenter is quite detached when viewing the battles between this group of generally conservative Oxford dons with their changing society - he never takes sides with either the old-fashioned Lewis or his (for a time) mortal enemy, the high modernist T.S. Eliot, for example, preferring often to let the participants in the various squabbles have their say in their own words. But he does do an excellent job of describing Lewis' religious journey (if such a thing really can be described), and Williams' fairly odd interests in the occult and a more "ecstatic" form of Christianity.

Obviously this will only be of interest to anyone passionate about any of these writers, but to all such people I would recommend it very highly. There are several pages of photos (black and white), of all the important participants, brief biographical sketches and a bibliography of Lewis, Tolkien and Williams, and an index. It's unfortunate that this book is out of print in the USA now, but used copies can be gotten fairly easily, here and elsewhere, in a range of prices. I have the hardcover American first edition (red dustjacket) and it's a nice one to own.

This is one of the best biographical books I've ever read. Carpenter captures the character of some of the most interesting British writers of the WWII/post-WWII era: C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Charles Williams. He manages to tread that careful balance between criticism and adoration. He accomplishes this, I think, out of true sympathy for each of the writers involved. He helped me understand the nature and complexity of the different relationships surrounding C.S. Lewis without resorting to vulgar fault-finding or "taking sides". At one point, Mr. Carpenter recreates an Inkling meeting. The intellectual vigor and personalities of the participants rises off the page and helps to explain why the Inklings generated (and still generate) such interest.

Despite its title, this book focuses a great deal of attention on one man, C. S. Lewis. This is no shortcoming from the point of view of interest as the book suffers nothing for being so centred on him. The two other prominent members of the group are not ignored, though one might expect Tolkien to be more present; readers who are looking for more on him, though, can read Carpenter's full-length biography. The book also devotes a good deal of space to Charles Williams about whom I knew little before reading it. That these three men are named explicitly in the title gives full notice as to whom the reader can expect to find out the most about. Their friends are given relatively little space; the only other person discussed in any detail is Lewis's brother Warnie.

While it may sound like I found the book more lacking than informative, the opposite is true. I found myself compulsively drawn forward. In spite of its seemingly narrow focus, the amount of information was satisfying as much as it could be (i.e. there are probably always questions one could ask for which there are no sources to answer them). Readers who are looking for information on Lewis will find it; those looking for Tolkien will find more about his world than about the man but they will not, I think, be disappointed.

Several recent events have renewed an international interest in the writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein: the 50th anniversary of the publication of "The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe" (1950), and the screenplay release of J.R.R. Tolkein's classic "The Fellowship of the Ring" on movie screens around the world in 2001.

Both of these world famous novels were first introduced "publically" at the regular gathering of a few British writers and friends, who informally called their literary club "the Inklings". Even the name "inkling" was a playful self-parody, referring both to the fact that they displayed their imaginations in ink and they often only had an "inkling" of what the other was really talking about.

Carpenter, also the authorized biographer of J.R.R. Tolkein, helps readers enter into the private lives and late-night meetings of these writers. You can smell the cigarette smoke, hear the whistling of the teapot and sense the tension of Oxford intellectuals wrestling with the outbreak of World War II. Thanks to Carpenter's careful retelling of these gatherings, you sit back in the evening, sip your tea and imagine yourself among these writers as another member of the fellowship.

For books on the fellowship of the family, look into these two titles: "The Family Cloister" and "The Christian Family Toolbox" both by David Robinson (New York: Crossroad, 2000 & 2001).