The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings

by Philip Zaleski

  “She is not well … What a life”: Letter, Owen Barfield to Craig Miller, October 31, 1970, Barfield Papers, Bodleian Library, Dep. c. 1074.

  492–93 “Contemplating in all … Where logical opposites”: Barfield, What Coleridge Thought, 35–36.

  “a full-fledged theory”: Ibid., 55

  “Yearning … the whole”: Ibid., 136–37.

  “Like Hegel”: Ibid., 177.

  “orderly and lucid”: Anthony C. Yu, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 42, no. 3 (September 1974): 579.

  “quite indispensable”: G. A. Cevasco, Studies in Romanticism 11, no. 2 (Spring 1972): 158.

  “admirable grasp … minds of such dissimilar”: John Colmer, Modern Language Review 68, no. 4 (October 1973): 894–95.

  “I think that receiving”: Royal Society of Literature, Report, 1966–1967, 39, quoted in Scull and Hammond, J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Chronology, 703.

  “in a world … And after all that has happened”: Tolkien, letter of February 8, 1967, to Charlotte and Denis Plimmer commenting on a draft of their interview with him for The Daily Telegraph Magazine, in Tolkien, Letters, 378.

  “found none of them”: Tolkien, Letters, 372.

  leg would be amputated: Walter Hooper to the authors, personal interview, July 15, 2006.

  “a ship or ark”: Tolkien, Letters, 405.

  “chaotic and illegible”: Christopher Tolkien, “Late Writings,” in Tolkien, Peoples of Middle-earth, 294.

  “‘Stories’ still sprout”: Tolkien, Letters, 404.

  “made his way”: Clyde Kilby, “Woodland Prisoner,” 13 in Kilby Files, 3–8, Wade Collection, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, quoted in Drout, J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, 89.

  “things they design”: Tolkien, Letters, 399.

  “I am utterly bereaved”: Ibid., 415.

  “she was my”: Sotheby’s English Literature and English History, London, December 6–7, 1984, lot 273, quoted in Scull and Hammond, J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Chronology, 758. The Sotheby’s catalogue has “raven” as “river”; we, following Scull and Hammond, have given “raven” as the likely correct transcription.

  “before very long”: “Tolkien Seeks the Quiet Life in Oxford,” Oxford Mail (March 22, 1972): 10.

  “as the Road”: Oxford University Gazette, CII, no. 3511 (June 8, 1972): 1079, quoted in Lewis, Collected Letters, vol. 3, 1681.

  “terrible words seen”: Tolkien, Letters, 422.

  “Peace to her ashes”: W. H. Lewis, Brothers and Friends, 300.

  “I have been assailed”: Sotheby’s English Literature, History, Private Press & Children’s Books, London, December 12, 2002, 239, quoted in Scull and Hammond, J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Chronology, 772.

  “lost confidence … sits cold and unable”: Tolkien, Letters, 431.

  “the Meggid … entirely justified”: Saul Bellow, Letters, ed. Benjamin Taylor (New York: Viking, 2010), 327–35.

  “of course there’s no guarantee”: Letter, Owen Barfield to Friedrich Hiebel, October 25, 1975, Barfield Papers, Bodleian Library, Dep. c. 1057.

  “a certain daily stability”: Bellow, Letters, 334.

  “I couldn’t get up”: Blaxland–de Lange, Owen Barfield, 54.

  “I can’t easily accept”: Bellow, Letters, 369.

  “damage … a peashooter”: Blaxland–de Lange, Owen Barfield, 60.

  “four or five years … I will have made”: Bellow, Letters, 371–72.

  “excruciating … a deep”: Owen Barfield, “East, West, and Saul Bellow,” Towards (Spring 1983): 26–28.

  “perhaps your understanding … hard, militant and angry”: Bellow, Letters, 399–400.

  Crown Princess Michiko: See Letter, Raymond P. Tripp, Jr., to Owen Barfield, December 5, 1975, Barfield Papers, Bodleian Library, Dep. c. 1057.

  unpublished: Both books were published after Barfield’s death: Owen Barfield, Night Operation ([San Rafael]: Barfield Press, 2009), and Owen Barfield, Eager Spring ([U.K.: Barfield Press, 2009).

  “North America has shown”: Owen Barfield, “Information for my Literary Executors, April, 1985,” Barfield Papers, Bodleian Library, Dep. c. 1255.

  to declare her love: See Barfield Archives, especially Box 1058, Bodleian Library.

  “I just can’t imagine … I am a bit”: Blaxland–de Lange, Owen Barfield, 294–95.

  “once-born … see God not”: William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, quoted in Gerard Irvine, “David’s Religion,” in David Cecil: A Portrait by His Friends, ed. Hannah Cranborne (Stanbridge, UK: Dovecote Press 1991), 181.

  “I’m so tired … I know what you’re sad about”: Personal interview with Walter Hooper, July 15, 2006.

  EPILOGUE: THE RECOVERED IMAGE

  “one fine evening”: “Is There an Oxford ‘School’ of Writing? A Discussion Between Rachel Trickett and David Cecil,” The Twentieth Century (formerly the Nineteenth Century & After) 157, no. 940 (June 1955): 570.

  507–508 “there is something … savour of grace and gracious piety”: Ibid., 561–65. See also James Patrick, The Magdalen Metaphysicals: Idealism and Orthodoxy at Oxford 1901–1945 (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1985).

  more likely to be Christian: See C. S. Lewis, letter to Sister Penelope, Lewis, Collected Letters, vol. 2, 701.

  “Sooner or later”: C. S. Lewis, “The Decline of Religion,” The Cherwell 26 (November 29, 1946): 8–10, reprinted in Lewis, God in the Dock. About the signs of a Christian revival at Oxford, Lewis observed, “No one would deny that Christianity is now ‘on the map’ among the younger intelligentsia as it was not, say, in 1920. Only freshmen now talk as if the anti-Christian position were self-evident.”

  path of real conversion: Lewis himself was, in Walter Hooper’s eyes, “the most thoroughly converted man I ever met.” Walter Hooper, preface to Lewis, God in the Dock, 12.

  essay in Books on Trial: Brady, “Unicorns at Oxford,” 59–60.

  “Lor’ bless you”: Lewis, Collected Letters, vol. 3, 824.

  “I don’t think Tolkien influenced me”: Letter to Francis Anderson, Lewis, Collected Letters, vol. 3, 1458.

  “short Xtian Dictionary”: Letter to Dorothy L. Sayers, Lewis, Collected Letters, vol. 2, 721.

  “a book of animal stories”: Lewis, Essays Presented to Charles Williams, xii. See Diana Pavlac Glyer’s valuable study The Company They Keep (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2007) for more on the question of mutual influence.

  “it has been my nightmare”: Germaine Greer, in W: The Waterstone’s Magazine (Winter/Spring 1997), quoted by Tom Shippey in his foreword to J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, xxii.

  “I am in fact a Hobbit”: Tolkien, Letters, 288.

  “O great glory”: Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, 954.

  “All my choices have proved ill”: Ibid., 604.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  The bibliography provided here includes the editions we consulted in preparing this book. It ranges beyond a “works cited” list, highlighting English-language books of general interest for Inklings studies, but it is not intended to be comprehensive. For more extensive bibliographies and publication histories, we recommend the following resources:

  Brazier, Paul. C. S. Lewis: An Annotated Bibliography and Resource. Eugene, Ore.: Pickwick Publications, 2012.

  Christopher, Joe R., and Joan K. Ostling. C. S. Lewis: An Annotated Checklist of Writings About Him and His Works. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1974.

  Drout, Michael D. C., ed. J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. New York: Routledge, 2007.

  Glenn, Lois. Charles W. S. Williams: A Checklist. Serif Series 33. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1975.

  Hammond, Wayne G., with the assistance of Douglas A. Anderson. J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography. New Castle, Del.; Winchester: Oak Knoll Books; St. Paul’s Bibliographies, 2013.

  Hooper, Walter. C. S. Lewis: A Complete Guide to His Life and Wor
ks. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996. The definitive resource. Walter Hooper is the editor of some thirty books by Lewis, including the major collections of Lewis’s letters. Formerly Lewis’s literary executor and literary trustee for the Owen Barfield Estate, he is currently a literary advisor to the Lewis Estate.

  Lee, Stuart D., ed. A Companion to J.R.R. Tolkien. Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.

  Lowenberg, Susan. C. S. Lewis: A Reference Guide, 1972–1988. Reference Guide to Literature Series. Toronto: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1993.

  MacSwain, Robert, and Michael Ward, eds. The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis. Cambridge Companions to Religion. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

  Matthew, H.C.G., and Brian Harrison, eds. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: In Association with the British Academy: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

  Ruud, Jay. Critical Companion to J.R.R. Tolkien: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. Facts on File Library of World Literature. New York: Facts on File, 2011.

  Scull, Christina, and Wayne G. Hammond. The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion & Guide: Chronology. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond are research librarians and Tolkien scholars whose collaborative works are essential.

  Scull, Christina, and Wayne G. Hammond. The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion & Guide: Reader’s Guide. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

  Tolkien, Christopher, ed. The History of Middle-earth. Published by George Allen & Unwin (London) and Houghton Mifflin (Boston) in twelve volumes (1983–1996) and an index (2002). Christopher Tolkien is the compiler, editor, and custodian of his father’s literary legacy. In The History of Middle-earth, he reconstructs his father’s mythology from a vast body of manuscript material and notes, elucidates the process by which The Lord of the Rings was composed, and provides a commentary that is at once historical, biographical, and bibliographical.

  In addition, there are valuable bibliographies maintained online by societies devoted to our authors. For links to relevant web resources, the best place to begin is the website of the Marion E. Wade Center: www.wheaton.edu/wadecenter/Authors. The Wade Center—at once archive, library, and museum—houses the major research collection of manuscripts, publications, and other materials by and about Owen Barfield, G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Dorothy L. Sayers, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. The best bibliographic resource for Owen Barfield is maintained by the Owen Barfield Society at http://barfieldsociety.org/Bibliography.htm, with further information available at the website of the Owen Barfield Literary Estate: www.owenbarfield.org/.

  For reasons of space, articles and essays cited in our notes have not been listed individually in the bibliography; but we consider the following journals indispensable for Inklings studies:

  Christian History (issues devoted to Lewis, Tolkien, and the seven British authors collected and studied at the Wade Center)

  Inklings: Jahrbuch für Literatur und Ästhetik (journal of the Inklings Gesellschaft)

  The Journal of Inkling Studies

  Mythlore (journal of the Mythopoeic Society)

  Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

  VII [SEVEN]: An Anglo-American Literary Review (annual journal published by the Marion E. Wade Center)

  Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review

  Towards (Anthroposophical/Barfield journal, no longer published)

  The Year’s Work in English Studies

  —and two journals of Elvish Linguistics: Parma Eldalamberon and Vinyar Tengwar (published by the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship).

  There are many other journals and newsletters published by societies—in many lands and languages—devoted to the Inklings individually or together. Links to the major societies may be found on the “Authors” page of the Marion E. Wade Center: www.wheaton.edu/wadecenter/Authors.

  In addition to the major mainstream publishers of Inklings books, there are specialty publishers—among them Mythopoeic Press, Walking Tree Publishers, the Barfield Press (UK), the Apocryphile Press, and Lindisfarne Press—whose lists include significant works by and about the Inklings.

  The major archival collections are housed at the Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; and the J.R.R. Tolkien Collection at Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

  OWEN BARFIELD: MAJOR WORKS

  Barfield, Owen. A Barfield Reader: Selections from the Writings of Owen Barfield. Edited by G. B. Tennyson. Hanover: University Press of New England / Wesleyan University Press, 1999.

  ______. A Barfield Sampler: Poetry and Fiction. Edited by Jeanne Clayton Hunter and Thomas Kranidas. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.

  ______. Eager Spring. [UK]: Barfield Press, 2009.

  ______. History in English Words. London: Methuen, 1926.

  ______. History, Guilt, and Habit. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1981.

  ______. Night Operation. [San Rafael]: Barfield Press, 2009.

  ______. Orpheus: A Poetic Drama. Edited by John C. Ulreich, Jr. West Stockbridge, Mass.: Lindisfarne Press, 1983.

  ______. Owen Barfield and the Origin of Language. Spring Valley, N.Y.: St. George Publications, 1979.

  ______. Owen Barfield on C. S. Lewis. Edited by G. B. Tennyson. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1989.

  ______. Poetic Diction: A Study in Meaning. 2nd ed. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1973.

  ______. The Rediscovery of Meaning, and Other Essays. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1977.

  ______. Romanticism Comes of Age. 1st ed. London: Anthroposophical Publishing Company, 1944.

  ______. Romanticism Comes of Age. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1967.

  ______. The Rose on the Ash-Heap. Oxford: Barfield Press, 2009.

  ______. Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1957.

  ______. The Silver Trumpet. Longmont, Colo.: Bookmakers Guild, 1986.

  ______. Speaker’s Meaning. 1st ed. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1967.

  ______. This Ever Diverse Pair. Edinburgh: Floris Classics, 1985.

  ______. Unancestral Voice. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1965.

  ______. What Coleridge Thought. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1971.

  ______. Worlds Apart: A Dialogue of the 1960’s. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1971.

  Barfield, Owen, and C. S. Lewis. Mark vs. Tristram: Correspondence Between C. S. Lewis & Owen Barfield. Edited by Walter Hooper. [Oxford]: Oxford University C. S. Lewis Society, 1990.

  Barfield, Owen, and Rudolf Steiner. Calendar of the Soul: The Year Participated. Forest Row, UK: Sophia Books, 2006.

  ______. The Case for Anthroposophy: Being Extracts from Von Seelenrätseln = Riddles of the Soul. Oxford: Barfield Press, 2010.

  C. S. LEWIS: MAJOR WORKS

  Calabria, Don Giovanni, and C. S. Lewis. The Latin Letters of C. S. Lewis. Edited by Martin Moynihan. South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine’s Press, 1998.

  ______. Una Gioia Insolita: Lettere Tra Un Prete Cattolico E Un Laico Anglicano. Edited by Luciano Squizzato. Translated by Patrizia Morelli. Milano: Jaca Books, 1995.

  Lewis, C. S. The Abolition of Man. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001.

  ______. The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition. London: Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, 1936.

  ______. All My Road Before Me: The Diary of C. S. Lewis, 1922–1927. Edited by Walter Hooper. San Diego: Harcourt, 1991.

  ______. Beyond Personality: The Christian Idea of God. London: Geoffrey Bles, Centenary Press, 1946.

  ______. Boxen: The Imaginary World of the Young C. S. Lewis. Edited by Walter Hooper. 1st American ed. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985.

  ______. Broadcast Talks: Reprinted with S
ome Alterations from Two Series of Broadcast Talks (Right and Wrong: A Clue to the Meaning of the Universe and What Christians Believe) Given in 1941 and 1942. London: Geoffrey Bles, Centenary Press, 1942.

  ______. C. S. Lewis: Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces. Edited by Lesley Walmsley. London: HarperCollins, 2000.

  ______. C. S. Lewis Letters to Children. Edited by Lyle W. Dorsett and Marjorie Lamp Mead. New York: Macmillan, 1985.

  ______. C. S. Lewis’s Lost Aeneid: Arms and the Exile. Edited by A. T. Reyes. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.

  ______. Christian Reflections. Reprint ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1967.

  ______. The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis. Vol. 1: Family Letters 1905–1931. Edited by Walter Hooper. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

  ______. The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis. Vol. 2: Books, Broadcasts, and the War 1931–1949. Edited by Walter Hooper. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

  ______. The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis. Vol. 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950–1963. Edited by Walter Hooper. New York: HarperCollins, 2007.

  ______. The Dark Tower, and Other Stories. Edited by Walter Hooper. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1977.

  ______. The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature. Canto ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

  ______. English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama: The Completion of the Clark Lectures, Trinity College, Cambridge, 1944. 1st edition. Oxford History of English Literature, edited by F. P. Wilson and Bonamy Dobree. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954.

  ______, ed. Essays Presented to Charles Williams. London: Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, 1947.

  ______. An Experiment in Criticism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

  ______. The Four Loves. New York: Harcourt, 1960.

  ______. God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics. Edited by Walter Hooper. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1970.

  ______. The Great Divorce: A Dream. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001.

  ______. A Grief Observed. New York: HarperOne, 2009.

  ______. The Horse and His Boy. New York: Harper Trophy, 1954.