What was the name of C.S. Lewis’s adult-career Oxford discussion group?

C.S. Lewis’s adult-career Oxford discussion group was called The Inklings. It was an informal literary circle whose members met to read, discuss, and criticize works in progress.

The group was active mainly during the 1930s and 1940s. Lewis was one of its central figures, and J.R.R. Tolkien was another prominent member. Other participants included Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Warren Lewis at different times.

The Inklings met in Oxford settings, including Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College and the Eagle and Child pub. Their discussions covered mythology, poetry, fiction, theology, and literary craft. The group was not a formal society with a constitution or membership register in the modern organizational sense.

The name is sometimes confused with the title of a university club or with a publishing movement. In reality, “The Inklings” describes a loose fellowship of writers and scholars whose conversations influenced the development and criticism of important twentieth-century literature.