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The Inklings were the most important literary set of the twentieth century. The group that centered around C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien influenced not just the direction of literature—especially through fantasy, science fiction, and biography—but the very direction of our civilization as World War II reshaped what it meant to be a man of the West.
Though much has been written about them, almost all scholarship on the Inklings has revolved around Lewis. While he was indeed critical to the formation and maintenance of the group, it was Tolkien’s larger mythology, out of which The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion arose, that animated the group and continues to sustain its legacy.
Tolkien and the Inklings revives a legendary friendship that spanned the 1930s and 1940s, chronicling the storied group from the point of view of Tolkien and the other Inklings. Having fought in the trenches of World War I, Tolkien—like all of the Inklings—was acutely aware of the fragility of civilization. After witnessing the rise of fascism, national socialism, and communism, and sending their sons off to fight World War II, the Inklings resolved to mount a bardic defense of Western civilization from Socrates through Dante and beyond. Perhaps, just perhaps, myth and legend might reawaken the West to what it could be and to what it once aspired. Tolkien and the Inklings shows that the enduring power of these men comes from the strength of a friendship for the ages.
Genius has a ripple effect. Bradley J. Birzer’s exploration of the Inklings is a fascinating deep dive into the friendship and synergy of Tolkien and Lewis and their creative progeny, including W. H. Auden, Dorothy L. Sayers, and more.
—Kevin J. Anderson, novelist
Here we are beginning to read what is not usually presented: a more fully worked-out picture of the Inklings in the round.
—Owen A. Barfield, grandson of Owen Barfield and trustee of the Owen Barfield Literary Estate
In this richly rewarding book on the creative fellowship of the Inklings, Bradley J. Birzer teaches us all what the Inklings knew so well: that the imagination is a sense organ for seeing and conveying invisible truths; that only through stories can we understand the world, ourselves, and each other; and, perhaps most importantly in these divided times, that the strongest communities, like the strongest friendships, cherish their individualities and even their differences more than their conformity.
—Adam Simon, writer, director, and executive producer
The Inklings—through a fiercely apolitical creative association bedded in deep and lasting friendship—arguably did more to influence and shape the modern fantastical imagination than any other literary group. They would have constituted a movement had they not wisely rejected such ideological confinements. Bradley J. Birzer’s account is a fascinating and endlessly readable history and analysis of their essential place in the western Bardic tradition, conducted with erudition, insight, and great warmth.
—Michael Marshall Smith, novelist and screenwriter
The Inklings have something in common with the coastline of Britain: They constitute a lineage which is real and enduring yet peculiarly difficult to measure. Bradley Birzer has trained his sights on the mythopoeic genius of J.R.R. Tolkien, in all its fractal splendor, and from this vantage point he brilliantly lights up essential features of the Inklings as a whole, their friendships, their wider circles, and their legacy of Christian humanism.
—Carol Zaleski, coauthor with Philip Zaleski of The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
The finest writers and scholars, the ones we read and return to, are those who show themselves true stewards of permanent things—ideals, aspirations, and heritage—that we do well to keep, and pass on.
Bradley J. Birzer is a true steward of this tradition, and in the pages of this book, we find a compelling, often moving journey through the lives and writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and their confrères among the Inklings. Take up this text, hearthside, turn its pages, and remember—there are a host of good things given us by Tolkien, Lewis, and the Inklings. To join their company is the gift bestowed by this book.
It’s one to read and return to.
—Kevin Belmonte, editor of G.K. Chesterton on Life and author of The Unexpected C.S. Lewis