Which group did C.S. Lewis co-found at Oxford with J.R.R. Tolkien?

C.S. Lewis co-founded The Inklings at Oxford with J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Inklings was an informal literary discussion group whose members met mainly at Oxford colleges and local pubs during the 1930s and 1940s. Lewis and Tolkien were among its best-known participants, alongside writers such as Charles Williams and Owen Barfield.

Members read drafts aloud and discussed literature, mythology, religion, and their own developing work. Tolkien read portions of The Lord of the Rings to the group, while Lewis’s fiction and theological writing also benefited from this culture of criticism and friendship.

The Inklings was not a formal society with a fixed membership list or published manifesto. That informality distinguishes it from organizations such as the Bloomsbury Group. The name refers to literary “inklings,” or partial ideas, rather than to a religious denomination.