The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams

Imagine your local book club. There are bound to be different interests and opinions among the group members, but they are united by a common love of written word. Now, imagine that these members are the best recognized and most promising up-and-coming voices in literature of the time. Imagine C. S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams at the forefront of this group and you may be close to envisioning the Inklings. These men formed the twentieth century equivalent of the ancient Greek schools of philosophy, sharing ideas on religion, politics, and—of course—literature. In the process, they created the most well-known and beloved literary works of the century.

This book discusses the lives of these men, and the circumstances under which they accomplished, no less than altering the course of literature and the study of similar scholarly topics. It considers the relationships among the men, and how they influenced the achievements of the others. With its detailed overlapping biographies, excerpts of correspondences, and coverage of a wide range of related topics, The Fellowship is certainly not intended for the casual before-bed reader; however, with the weaving of written failures and successes through an era of wartime struggles, the literature enthusiast or the history aficionado—or a combination thereof—who reaches for this rather thick book is sure to enjoy the unique insights presented throughout its pages.