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Inklings
The Inklings were an informal literature, literary discussion group associated with J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis at the University of Oxford for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction and encouraged the writing of fantasy. The best-known, apart from Tolkien and Lewis, were Charles Williams (British writer), Charles Williams, and (although a Londoner) Owen Barfield. Members The more regular members of the Inklings, many of them academics at the University, included: * Owen Barfield * Lord David Cecil * Hugo Dyson * Adam Fox (poet), Adam Fox * Robert Havard (Lewis's and Tolkien's doctor, dubbed "Useless Quack" by Warren Lewis) * C. S. Lewis * Warren Lewis (C. S. Lewis's elder brother) * J. R. R. Tolkien * Christopher Tolkien (J. R. R. Tolkien's son) * Charles Williams (British writer), Charles Williams Less frequent visitors included: * Nevill Coghill * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Owen Barfield
Arthur Owen Barfield (9 November 1898 – 14 December 1997) was an English philosopher, author, poet, critic, and member of the Inklings. Life Barfield was born in London, to Elizabeth (née Shoults; 1860–1940) and Arthur Edward Barfield (1864–1938). He had three elder siblings: Diana (1891–1963), Barbara (1892–1951), and Harry (1895–1977). He was educated at Highgate School and Wadham College, Oxford and in 1920 received a first class degree in English language and literature. After finishing his B.Litt., which became his third book ''Poetic Diction'', he was a dedicated poet and author for over ten years. After 1934 his profession was as a solicitor in London, from which he retired in 1959 aged 60. Thereafter he had many guest appointments as visiting professor in North America. Barfield published numerous essays, books, and articles. His primary focus was on what he called the "evolution of consciousness," which is an idea which occurs frequently in his writings. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Williams (British Writer)
Charles Walter Stansby Williams (20 September 1886 – 15 May 1945) was an English poet, novelist, playwright, theologian and literary critic. Most of his life was spent in London, where he was born, but in 1939 he moved to Oxford with the university press for which he worked until his death. Early life and education Charles Williams was born in London in 1886, the only son of (Richard) Walter Stansby Williams (1848–1929) and Mary (née Wall). His father Walter was a journalist and foreign business correspondent for an importing firm, writing in French and German, who was a 'regular and valued' contributor of verse, stories and articles to many popular magazines. His mother Mary, the sister of the ecclesiologist and historian J. Charles Wall, was a former milliner (hatmaker), of Islington. He had one sister, Edith, born in 1889. The Williams family lived in 'shabby-genteel' circumstances, owing to Walter's increasing blindness and the decline of the firm by which he was em ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adam Fox (poet)
Adam Fox (1883–1977), Canon, was the Dean of Divinity at Magdalen College, Oxford. He was one of the first members of the literary group "Inklings". He was Oxford Professor of Poetry and later he became Canon of Westminster Abbey. He was also warden of Radley College. Biography He was headmaster of the Radley College (1918–1924). Between 1938 and 1942 he was Oxford Professor of Poetry. Later he became Canon of Westminster Abbey and he is buried there in Poets' Corner. During his time at Oxford, he wrote his long poem in four books " Old King Coel". It gets its name from King Cole, legendary British father of the Roman Empress Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine. As Professor of Poetry, Fox advocated poetry which is intelligible to readers, and gives enough pleasure to be read again. He was one of the first members of the "Inklings", a literary group which also included C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. In his 1945 ''Plato for Pleasure'', he tried to int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Notion Club Papers
''The Notion Club Papers'' is an abandoned novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, written in 1945 and published posthumously in ''Sauron Defeated'', the 9th volume of ''The History of Middle-earth''. It is a time travel story, written while ''The Lord of the Rings'' was being developed. The Notion Club is a fictionalization of Tolkien's own such club, the Inklings. Tolkien's mechanism for the exploration of time is through lucid dreams. These allow club members to experience events as far back as the destruction of the Atlantis-like island of Númenor, as narrated in '' The Silmarillion''. The unfinished text of ''The Notion Club Papers'' runs for some 120 pages in ''Sauron Defeated'', accompanied by 40 pages of Christopher Tolkien's commentary and notes, with examples of the pages hand-written by his father. Context J. R. R. Tolkien was a scholar of English literature, a philologist and a medievalist interested in language and poetry from the Middle Ages, especially that of Anglo-Sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nevill Coghill
Nevill Henry Kendal Aylmer Coghill (19 April 1899 – 6 November 1980) was an Anglo-Irish literary scholar, known especially for his modern-English version of Geoffrey Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales''. He was an associate of the literary discussion group the 'Inklings', which included J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. Early life and education His father was Sir Egerton Coghill, 5th Baronet and his younger brother the actor Ambrose Coghill. Nevill was named after his uncle, Nevill Coghill, who was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously at the Battle of Isandlwana. Coghill was educated at Haileybury, and read History and English at Exeter College, Oxford. In 1924 he became a Fellow of the college, a position he held until 1957, and there is a small bust of him in the college chapel. He served with the Royal Field Artillery in the First World War from 1917 to 1919 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in April 1918. In 1927 he married Elspeth Nora Harley, with w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warren Lewis
Warren Hamilton Lewis (16 June 1895 – 9 April 1973) was an Irish historian and officer in the British Army, best known as the elder brother of writer and professor C. S. Lewis. Warren Lewis was a supply officer with the Royal Army Service Corps of the British Army during and after the World War I, First World War. After retiring in 1932 to live with his brother in Oxford, he was one of the founding members of the Inklings, an informal Oxford literary society. He wrote on French history, and served as his brother's secretary for the later years of C. S. Lewis's life. Early life C. S. Lewis referred to his older brother Warren ("Warnie") as "my dearest and closest friend". Their lifelong friendship was formed as the boys played together in their home on the outskirts of Belfast, Little Lea, writing and illustrating stories for their fantasy world of Boxen (C. S. Lewis), Boxen (a combination of India and a previous invention called Animal-Land). In 1908, their mother died fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin Hardie
Colin Graham Hardie (16 February 1906 – 17 October 1998) was a British classicist and academic. From 1933 to 1936, he was Director of the British School at Rome. From 1936 to 1973, he was a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and a tutor in classics. In addition, from 1967 to 1973, he was the Public Orator of the University of Oxford. He was a member of the Inklings, an informal literary discussion group which included the likes of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. Early life Hardie was born on 16 February 1906 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the third son of William Ross Hardie and his wife Isabella Watt Hardie (née Stevenson). His father was a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, and Professor of Humanity at the University of Edinburgh. His brother, Frank, also went on to become a successful classicist. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy, a private school. He then went on to study at Balliol College, University of Oxford as a Warner Exhibitioner and Honorary Scholar. He took f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Havard
Dr. Robert Emlyn Havard (1901–1985) was the physician of C. S. Lewis, his wife Joy Gresham, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Havard has also been credited as a "skilled and prolific writer". Interactions with other writers In addition to his medical research papers, Havard authored an appendix for C. S. Lewis's ''The Problem of Pain'' as well as a description of Lewis included in ''Remembering C. S. Lewis: Recollections of Those Who Knew Him'' and one of J. R. R. Tolkien included in ''Mythlore.'' Lewis invited Havard to join the Oxford-based Inklings because of the literary interests he shared with that group. Like Tolkien, he was a Roman Catholic. Havard was sometimes referred to by the Inklings as the "Useless Quack," mainly because Warren Lewis Warren Hamilton Lewis (16 June 1895 – 9 April 1973) was an Irish historian and officer in the British Army, best known as the elder brother of writer and professor C. S. Lewis. Warren Lewis was a supply officer with the Royal Army Servic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugo Dyson
Henry Victor Dyson Dyson (7 April 1896 – 6 June 1975), generally known as Hugo Dyson and who signed his writings H. V. D. Dyson, was an English academic and a member of the Inklings literary group. He was a committed Christian, and together with J. R. R. Tolkien he helped C. S. Lewis to convert to Christianity, particularly after a long conversation as they strolled on Addison's Walk at Oxford. Career Academia Dyson taught English at the University of Reading from 1924 until obtaining a fellowship with Merton College, Oxford, in 1945. His students at Oxford included the later cultural theorist Stuart Hall, whom he tutored in the early 1950s. Dyson retired in 1963 but returned as emeritus fellow in 1969, teaching the newly introduced "modern" literature paper. His tutorials were notable because many of the writers he discussed had been personal friends. Works Dyson was not a prolific writer, but the quality and voluminous quantity of his lectures and general conversation ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Courtenay Edward Stevens
Courtenay Edward Stevens (14 April 1905 – 1 September 1976) was a British classicist. He was educated at Winchester College and received a first class degree in literae humaniores ("the Greats") from New College, Oxford. Stevens remained at Oxford after graduation, receiving scholarships and, in 1933, a research fellowship at Magdalen College. During the Second World War he worked for British military intelligence, specialising in propaganda. Stevens produced German-language newspapers and broadcasts and suggested the use of the first notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony for Allied broadcasts. After the war he returned to Magdalen, taking on a huge teaching workload of up to 72 hours per week. Stevens enjoyed success, in partnership with the philosopher J. L. Austin, in preparing students for examination in the Greats. He served as vice-president of the college from 1950–51. Education and early career Stevens was born on 14 April 1905 and educated at Winchester Colleg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Leslie Wrenn
Charles Leslie Wrenn FPCO (1895–1969) was an English scholar and writer, the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon between 1945 and 1963, and the founder and chairman of the International Association of University Professors of English. Wrenn was also the President of the Philological Society from 1944 to 1948. Early life Born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Charles Wrenn was privately educated, before he was elected to a scholarship at The Queen's College, Oxford, where he achieved First class honours in English. Career Wrenn joined the University of Durham in 1917, where he worked for three years lecturing English, before becoming Principal and Professor of English at Pachaiyappa's College at the University of Madras, before leaving in 1921 to spend seven years at the newly formed University of Dhaka as Professor of English. Wrenn returned to the UK, working as a lecturer in the department of English Language and Literature at the University of Leeds between 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord David Cecil
Lord Edward Christian David Gascoyne-Cecil, CH (9 April 1902 – 1 January 1986) was a British biographer, historian, and scholar. He held the style of "Lord" by courtesy as a younger son of a marquess. Early life and studies David Cecil was the youngest of the four children of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury, and the former Lady Cicely Gore (second daughter of Arthur Gore, 5th Earl of Arran). His siblings were Lady Beatrice Edith Mildred Cecil (afterwards Baroness Harlech), Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury (1893–1972) and Lady Mary Alice Cecil (afterwards Mary Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire). Cecil was a delicate child, suffering from a tubercular gland in his neck at the age of 8 years, and after an operation he spent a great deal of time in bed, where he developed his love of reading. Because of his delicate health his parents sent him to Eton College later than other boys, and he survived the experience by spending one day a week in b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
