The Company They Keep C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community Diana Pavlac Glyer 2008, 288 pp Paper ISBN 978-0-87338-991-4 Paper, $30.00 courtesy of our partner, Atlas Books Call (419) 281-1802 to order by phone.

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A rare glimpse into the creative workings of the Inklings

The creators of Narnia and Middle-earth, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, were close friends and professional colleagues. They met frequently with a community of fellow writers at Oxford in the 1930s and 1940s, all sharing their works-in-progress. The group became known as the Inklings.

This important study challenges the standard interpretation that Lewis, Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and the other Inklings had little influence on one another’s work, drawing on the latest research in composition studies and the sociology of the creative process. Diana Glyer invites readers into the heart of the group, examining diary entries and personal letters and carefully comparing the rough drafts of their manuscripts with their final, published work.

Her analysis not only demonstrates the high level of mutual influence that characterized this writers group but also provides a lively and compelling picture of how writers and other creative artists challenge, correct, and encourage one another as they work together in community.

Diana Pavlac Glyer is professor of English at Azusa Pacific University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago and now lives in California.

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Of related interest:

A Question of Time by Verlyn Flieger

Splintered Light by Verlyn Flieger

Interrupted Music by Verlyn Flieger

The Plants of Middle-earth by Dinah Hazell

C.S. Lewis, Poet by Don W. King

C.S. Lewis in Context by Doris T. Myers

The Rhetoric of Certitude: C.S. Lewis’s Nonfiction Prose by Gary L. Tandy