C.S. Lewis belonged to The Inklings, a literary discussion group that included J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Inklings met in Oxford from roughly the 1930s until the early 1950s. Members read works in progress aloud, discussed literature, and offered criticism. Lewis and Tolkien were among the group’s best-known participants, and both used the meetings to develop imaginative fiction influenced by myth, legend, and Christianity.
The group was informal rather than a society with a fixed membership list or formal constitution. Other associated writers included Charles Williams and Owen Barfield. Meetings took place in college rooms and at Oxford’s Eagle and Child pub, which became popularly known as the Bird and Baby.
The Inklings did not write a shared series or publish a collective manifesto. Their importance lies in the creative exchange that helped shape works such as Lewis’s Narnia stories and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.