C.S. Lewis taught English at Oxford’s Magdalen College for nearly three decades.
Lewis became a fellow and tutor of Magdalen College in 1925 and remained there until 1954. During that period he taught English literature, wrote influential books, and developed friendships with other Oxford writers, including J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams.
The college was an important setting in Lewis’s professional and social life. His Thursday tutorials and regular conversations with colleagues helped shape the intellectual community often associated with the Inklings. The Inklings were an informal discussion group rather than an official Magdalen society, but Magdalen was closely connected with Lewis’s Oxford years.
In 1954 Lewis left Oxford for Cambridge, where he became the first professor of Medieval and Renaissance English. Magdalen College should not be confused with Magdalene College, Cambridge; the two colleges have similar names but belong to different universities.