C.S. Lewis used the name The Inklings for the informal Oxford literary group that included J.R.R. Tolkien. The group was active mainly during the 1930s and 1940s.
The Inklings was not a formal society with a fixed constitution or membership list. It was a circle of writers and academics who met to read aloud and discuss works in progress, poetry, theology, and literature. Lewis and Tolkien were among its best-known participants.
Meetings took place in Oxford, including gatherings in Lewis’s college rooms and at the Eagle and Child pub, commonly known by its nickname, the Bird and Baby. Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Warren Lewis were also associated with the group at different times.
The Inklings’ importance comes from the creative exchange among its members. Tolkien’s developing mythology and Lewis’s fiction benefited from criticism and conversation, although the group did not produce books collectively. Its name is sometimes confused with a university club, but it was essentially a literary discussion circle.