Which author became one of C.S. Lewis’s closest literary friends through the Inklings?

J.R.R. Tolkien became one of C.S. Lewis’s closest literary friends through the Inklings.

The Inklings were an informal Oxford literary discussion group active mainly during the 1930s and 1940s. Lewis and Tolkien were central members, and they shared drafts of works that would later become major fantasy classics. Meetings took place in college rooms and at the Eagle and Child pub, which members jokingly called the Bird and Baby.

Tolkien was a philologist and medievalist who taught at Oxford. Lewis admired Tolkien’s developing mythology, while Tolkien valued Lewis’s encouragement and criticism. Their friendship helped shape the literary environment in which The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia were written, although the two authors had distinct styles and fictional worlds.

Other associated Inklings included Charles Williams and Owen Barfield. The group was not a formal society with membership rules or a published program. It was a circle of friends who read aloud, discussed literature, and challenged one another’s manuscripts.