The Inklings

by Humphrey Carpenter

  Then suddenly his life changed dramatically. One day while marking essay papers he found himself writing In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit’ and worldwide renown awaited him.

  Humphrey Carpenter was given unrestricted access to all Tolkien’s papers, and interviewed his friends and family. From these sources he follows the long and painful process of creation that produced The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and offers a wealth of information about the life and work of the twentieth century’s most cherished author.

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  A comprehensive collection of letters spanning the adult life (1914-1973) of one of the world’s most famous storytellers.

  J.R.R. Tolkien was one of the most prolific letter writers of this century. Over the years he wrote to his publishers, his family, to friends (including C.S. Lewis, W.H. Auden and Naomi Mitchison) and to fans of his books. The letters present a fascinating and highly detailed portrait of the man in many of his aspects: as storyteller, scholar, Catholic, parent and observer of the world around him. They also shed much light on his creative genius and grand design for the creation of a whole new world Middle-earth.

  This collection will appeal not only to the legions of Tolkien fans, but will entertain anyone who appreciates the art of letter-writing, of which Tolkien was a master.

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  APPENDICES

  APPENDIX A

  Biographical notes

  These are short outlines of the careers of those who often came to the Thursday evening gatherings at Magdalen. The list is by no means comprehensive, and does not include those who were occasional visitors. It also omits many who joined the Inklings at the Bird and Baby on Tuesdays.

  OWEN BARFIELD Born in 1898, the son of a London solicitor. His parents were ‘free-thinkers’ and (wrote Lewis in Surprised by Joy) ‘he had hardly heard of Christianity itself until he went to school’. After attending Highgate School he served in the Royal Engineers, 1917–19, and then read English at Wadham College, Oxford, where he got a First Class. He later took a B. Litt. After leaving Oxford, Barfield worked for seven years as a freelance writer, holding various appointments on editorial staffs and contributing to the New Statesman, London Mercury, and other journals. In about 1922 he became interested in the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, and, together with Lewis’s friend Cecil Harwood, joined the Anthroposophical Society. His book Poetic Diction, which in its original form was his B. Litt. thesis, was published in 1928. In 1931 lack of sufficient income from writing (he now had a wife and children to support) made him enter his father’s legal firm while studying for the B.C.L. at Oxford. The work was hard and demanding, and his literary output became small until, nearly thirty years later, a gradual retirement from legal practice allowed him to write a number of books which are largely concerned with Anthroposophy: Saving the Appearances (1957), Worlds Apart (1963), and Unancestral Voice (1965), as well as Speaker’s Meaning (1967) and What Coleridge Thought (1971). Interest in these books was aroused in several American universities, and Barfield has made a number of visits to the United States to give lectures. He lives in Kent.

  J. A. W. BENNETT Born in New Zealand in 1911. After taking his degree in Auckland, he read English at Merton College, Oxford, and became a Research Fellow at Queen’s College, 1938–47. In 1947 he was elected Fellow and Tutor at Magdalen College. In 1964 he succeeded C. S. Lewis as Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge. He died in 1981.

  LORD DAVID CECIL Born in 1902, the youngest son of the fourth Marquess of Salisbury. Educated at Eton and Christ Church. Became Fellow and Lecturer in Modern History at, Wadham College in 1924, but left this post in 1930 to devote himself to writing. He soon became known as a biographer and critic, his first published book being a life of Cowper, The Stricken Deer. This was followed by numerous biographical and literary studies. In 1939 he returned to Oxford as a Fellow of New College, where he taught English Literature. He was elected Goldsmiths’ Professor of English at Oxford in 1948. He died on 1 January 1986.

  NEVILL COGHILL Born in 1899, the younger son of an Anglo-Irish baronet. Educated at Haileybury. After war service, he read English at Exeter College, Oxford, and was elected a Fellow of that college in 1924. In 1957 he was elected Professor of English Literature at Oxford. Outside Oxford, he is best known for his popularisation of Chaucer through his translation of the Canterbury Tales into modern English. At Oxford he was much admired for his theatrical productions; among the undergraduate actors who took part in these was Richard Burton. He died in 1980.

  COMMANDER JIM DUNDAS-GRANT Always known to the Inklings as ‘D-G’. Educated at Eton and served in the Navy during the First World War, remaining in the service after 1918. A member of the Catholic Church. In the Second World War he was given command of the Oxford University Naval Division, and he took up residence in Magdalen College, where he became friends with Lewis. After the war he and his wife were in charge of a residential house for Catholic students in Oxford. He died in 1985.

  HUGO DYSON Born in 1896, and christened Henry Victor Dyson Dyson. Educated at Brighton College and Sandhurst. Commissioned in the Royal West Kent regiment, and seriously wounded at Passchendaele. Came up to Exeter College, Oxford, in 1919 and read English. In 1924, after taking a B. Litt. at Oxford, he became Lecturer in English at Reading University, but often came to Oxford to lecture for the University Extension Courses and the W.E.A. In 1945 he was elected Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Merton College, Oxford, where he remained until his retirement in 1963. He died in 1975.

  ADAM FOX Born in 1883. Educated at University College, Oxford. Was ordained before the First World War. He became a public school master, taught at Lancing, and from 1918 to 1924 was Warden of Radley. In 1929 he became a Fellow of Magdalen College and Dean of Divinity. In 1938 he was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford. He left Oxford in 1942 to become a Canon of Westminster Abbey. His publications include the narrative poem Old King Coel (1937), Plato for Pleasure (1945), Meet the Greek Testament (1952), and Dean Inge (1960). He died in 1977.

  COLIN HARDIE Born in 1906. Educated at Edinburgh Academy and Balliol College, Oxford. From 1930 to 1933 he was Fellow and Classical Tutor of Balliol. In 1933 he became Director of the British School at Rome. In 1936 he returned to Oxford as Fellow and Classical Tutor at Magdalen. He was Public Orator of the University from 1967 to 1973, and since 1971 has been Honorary Professor of Ancient Literature at the Royal Academy of Arts. He retired from his Oxford fellowship in 1973, and he and his wife now live in Sussex.

  R. E. (‘HUMPHREY’) HAVARD Born in 1901, the son of an Anglican clergyman. He read Chemistry at Keble College, Oxford, then studied medicine and became a doctor. He was received into the Catholic Church when he was thirty. After working in Leeds, and marrying, he came to Oxford in 1934 and took over a medical practice with surgeries in Headington and St Giles. He died in 1985.

  CLIVE STAPLES (‘JACK’) LEWIS Born on 29 November 1898 in Belfast, the son of Albert Lewis, a solicitor specialising in police court work, and Flora Hamilton. He was at first educated at home, but after the death of his mother in 1908 he was sent to Wynyard School in Hertfordshire. He left Wynyard when the school was closed in 1910, and after spending one term at Campbell College, Belfast, was sent to Cherbourg preparatory school at Malvern. In 1913 he entered Malvern College, but left after the summer term of 1914. From then until 1917 he was taught privately by W. T. Kirkpatrick at his home at Great Bookham in Surrey. He won a scholarship to University College, Oxford, and began to study there during 1917, but was called up into the army in June. In September he was gazetted to the Third Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry, and after training in the West Country he embarked for France in November. In April 1918 he was wounded during the Battle of Arras, and was transported to hospital in London. After convalescence, he returned to Oxford in January 1919. In 1920 he took a First Class in Classical Moderations, and in 1922 another First in Literae Humaniores (‘Greats’). He then studied
English Language and Literature and took a First in this in 1923. In 1925 he was elected Fellow and Tutor in English at Magdalen College, where he remained until 1954. In that year he was elected Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge. He married Helen Joy Gresham (Davidman) in 1956. In the autumn of 1963 he retired from his Cambridge chair. He died on 22 November 1963, aged sixty-four.

  WARREN HAMILTON (‘WARNIE’) LEWIS Born in 1895, and, like his younger brother C. S. Lewis, was at first educated at home. He later attended Wynyard School and Malvern College. He won a prize cadetship to Sandhurst in 1914, then became an officer in the Royal Army Service Corps, serving in France. He remained in the army after the war, serving largely in England but also in the Far East, and holding the rank of Captain. In 1932 he retired from the army and came to live in Oxford with his brother, depending on his army pension and on small private means for his income. In 1939 he returned to the R.A.S.C. and served for some months in France with the rank of Major, but left the army again in 1940. In his later years he published a number of books of seventeenth-century French history and biography. After his brother’s death in 1963 he continued to live in Oxford, chiefly at the Kilns. He himself died in 1973.

  GERVASE MATHEW Born in 1905. Educated privately, then at Balliol College, Oxford. Joined the Catholic order of Dominicans in 1928 and was ordained priest in 1934, residing at Blackfriars in Oxford for the rest of his life. He travelled widely, often taking part in archaeological surveys in Africa and the Middle East. In Oxford he lectured for the Modern History, Theology, and English Faculties, and published books on Byzantium and medieval England. He died in 1976.

  R. B. McCALLUM Born in 1898. Read Modern History at Worcester College, Oxford, and was elected to a Fellowship at Pembroke College, where he remained until his retirement in 1967. He was elected Master of Pembroke in 1955. He died in 1973.

  C. E. (‘TOM’) STEVENS Born in 1905. Educated at Winchester, where he acquired the nickname ‘Tom Brown Stevens’ – his real Christian names were Courteney Edward – and at Oriel College, Oxford. Became Fellow and Ancient History Tutor at Magdalen College in 1934. He died in 1976.

  CHRISTOPHER TOLKIEN Born in 1924, the third son of J. R. R. Tolkien. Educated at the Dragon School, Oxford, and at the Oratory School. During the Second World War he served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force. After the war he read English at Trinity College, Oxford. Later he lectured at Oxford in Anglo-Saxon, Middle English and Old Norse, and was elected a Fellow of New College. In 1975 he resigned his Fellowship to devote his time to editing his father’s unpublished works, and he prepared The Silmarillion for publication in 1977. He now lives in France.

  JOHN RONALD REUEL TOLKIEN Born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, the son of Arthur Reuel Tolkien, a bank manager, and Mabel Suffield; both his parents were themselves born in Birmingham. His father died in 1896, while he and his mother, together with his younger brother Hilary, were visiting England on leave. In the years that followed he was at first educated at home by his mother; in 1900 he entered King Edward’s School, Birmingham, where he remained until 1911 (with a short interval in which he attended another Birmingham school). His mother died in 1904. In 1911 he went up as an Exhibitioner to read Classics at Exeter College, Oxford. After taking a Second Class in Moderations in 1913 he read English Language and Literature, taking a First Class in this in 1915. In 1916 he married Edith Bratt. In 1915 he was commissioned in the Lancashire Fusiliers, and in 1916 he served, from July to November, in the Battle of the Somme. He was sent home from France suffering from ‘trench fever’, and continued to be ill for much of the time until the end of the war, though during this period he also served in various camps in England. In November 1918 he took up a job on the New English Dictionary at Oxford. His first son, John, was born in 1917; the second and third children, Michael and Christopher, were born in 1920 and 1924 respectively; a daughter, Priscilla, was born in 1929. In 1920 Tolkien was appointed Reader in English Language at Leeds University, and he worked there until 1925, when he was elected Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. He held this chair until 1945, when he became Professor of English Language and Literature, retiring from university work in 1959. In 1968 he and his wife moved to Bournemouth; Mrs Tolkien died in 1971, and Tolkien returned to Oxford and lived in Merton College. He was awarded the C.B.E. in 1972. He died on 2 September 1973, aged eighty-one.

  JOHN WAIN Born in 1925 in Stoke-on-Trent. Educated at Newcastle-under-Lyme High School. Failed his medical test for the army because of poor eyesight and came up to Oxford in 1943 to read English at St John’s College. Because of wartime arrangements, C. S. Lewis was his tutor. Got a First Class, then held a research fellowship at St John’s. In 1947 he became Lecturer in English at Reading University, where he remained until 1955. His first book to achieve popular success was the novel Hurry On Down (1953), and this was followed by other novels, volumes of poetry, and criticism. He was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford from 1973 to 1978. He died in 1994.

  CHARLES WALTER STANSBY WILLIAMS Born on 20 September 1886, the son of Walter Williams, clerk, and Mary Wall. He was at first brought up in Holloway, north London, but in 1894 the family moved to St Albans. Charles was educated at St Albans Grammar School, to which he won a Junior County Scholarship. In 1901 he won an award to University College, London, and began to study there the following year; but in 1904 he was obliged to leave because of the lack of family funds. He began work in the Methodist New Connexion Bookroom in Holborn, and moved to the Oxford University Press in 1908. In 1917 he married Florence Conway. A son, Michael, was born in 1922. In 1939 Williams moved to Oxford, together with the staff of the Press. In 1943 Oxford University conferred upon him the honorary degree of M.A. He died on 15 May 1945, aged fifty-eight.

  CHARLES WRENN Born in 1895. Educated at Queen’s College, Oxford. Between 1917 and 1930 he lectured at Durham, Madras, Dacca, and Leeds. He returned to Oxford in 1930 as University Lecturer in Anglo-Saxon. In 1939 he was elected to a professorship at King’s College, London. He returned to Oxford in 1946 to succeed J. R. R. Tolkien as Professor of Anglo-Saxon. He died in 1969.

  APPENDIX B

  Bibliography

  The abbreviations in bold type are those used in the notes (Appendix C) which give the sources of quotations. All books were first published in London unless otherwise stated.

  A The principal writings of Lewis, Tolkien and Williams A highly selective list. For full bibliographical information see Light on C. S. Lewis (by Owen Barfield and others, edited by Jocelyn Gibb) (Geoffrey Bles, 1965); the present writer’s J. R. R. Tolkien: a biography (Allen & Unwin, 1977); and The Image of the City (essays by Charles Williams, edited with an introduction and bibliography by Anne Ridler) (Oxford University Press, 1958).

  C. S. LEWIS

  Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics Heinemann, 1919 (as Clive Hamilton)

  Dymer J. M. Dent, 1926 (as Clive Hamilton; reissued 1950 as by C. S. Lewis)

  The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism J. M. Dent, 1933; Sheed & Ward, 1935. 2nd edition, Geoffrey Bles, 1943

  The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieva. Tradition Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1936

  Out of the Silent Planet John Lane the Bodley Head, 1938

  Rehabilitations and other essays Oxford University Press, 1939

  (with E. M. W. Tillyard) The Personal Heresy: A Controversy Oxford University Press, 1939

  The Problem of Pain Geoffrey Bles, 1940

  The Screwtape Letters Geoffrey Bles, 1942

  A Preface to ‘Paradise Lost’ Oxford University Press, 1942

  Broadcast Talks (‘Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe’ and ‘What Christians Believe’) Geoffrey Bles, 1942

  Christian Behaviour: A Further Series of Broadcast Talks Geoffrey Bles, 1943

  Perelandra John Lane the Bodley Head, 1943. Also published as Voyage to Venus, Pan Books, 1953

  The Abolition of Man, or Reflec
tions on Education with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools Oxford University Press, 1943

  Beyond Personality: the Christian Idea of God Geoffrey Bles, 1944

  That Hideous Strength: a modern fairy-tale for grown-ups John Lane the Bodley Head, 1945. Abridged version, Pan Books, 1955.

  The Great Divorce: A Dream Geoffrey Bles, 1946

  Miracles: A Preliminary Study Geoffrey Bles, 1947. With revision of Chapter III, Fontana Books, 1960

  (with A. O. Barfield, W. H. Lewis, Gervase Mathew, Dorothy Sayers and J. R. R. Tolkien) Essays presented to Charles Williams Oxford University Press, 1947 [EPCW]

  Arthurian Torso [see under Charles Williams, 1948]

  Transposition and Other Addresses Geoffrey Bles, 1949 (Published in America as The Weight of Glory)

  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Geoffrey Bles, 1950

  Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia Geoffrey Bles, 1951

  Mere Christianity (a revised and enlarged edition of Broadcast Talks, Christian Behaviour, and Beyond Personality) Geoffrey Bles, 1952

  The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’ Geoffrey Bles, 1952

  The Silver Chair Geoffrey Bles, 1953

  The Horse and His Boy Geoffrey Bles, 1954

  English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, excluding Drama (The Oxford History of English Literature, Volume III) Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1954

  The Magician’s Nephew The Bodley Head, 1956

  Surprised by Joy: the shape of my early life Geoffrey Bles, 1955 [SBJ]

  The Last Battle The Bodley Head, 1956

  Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Geoffrey Bles, 1956

  Reflections on the Psalms Geoffrey Bles, 1958

  The Four Loves Geoffrey Bles, 1960

  Studies in Words Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1960