J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met with fellow writers in a group called The Inklings.
The Inklings was an informal literary discussion group associated with Oxford. It was active particularly during the 1930s and 1940s, meeting in rooms at Magdalen College and at the Eagle and Child pub, which became popularly known as the Bird and Baby.
Members read works in progress aloud and discussed literature, theology, mythology, and language. Tolkien shared portions of The Lord of the Rings, while Lewis and others brought their own fiction, essays, and poetry. The group was not a formal society with a fixed membership list or constitution.
Tolkien and Lewis became close friends after meeting at Oxford, although their relationship later cooled. The Inklings is sometimes confused with the Bloomsbury Group, a separate London-based network of writers and artists. The name “Inklings” was adopted from an earlier student discussion group and suited the members’ shared interest in writing.