J.R.R. Tolkien was C.S. Lewis’s close friend and fellow Oxford academic who wrote The Hobbit.
Tolkien and Lewis met at Oxford and became important members of the Inklings, an informal group of writers and scholars who shared works in progress. Their friendship included discussions of mythology, language, religion, and imaginative literature.
Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, published in 1937, and The Lord of the Rings, published in three volumes from 1954 to 1955. Lewis strongly admired Tolkien’s work and is often credited with encouraging Tolkien during periods when the manuscripts faced delays or uncertainty.
The two men did not agree on every literary or religious question, and their friendship later became less close. Charles Williams and Owen Barfield were also members of the Inklings, which is why they are plausible alternatives. Tolkien, however, is the Oxford friend associated specifically with The Hobbit.