C. S. Lewis shared the Inklings literary group with J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Inklings were an informal Oxford discussion and reading group active mainly during the 1930s and 1940s. Members met at places including Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College and the Eagle and Child pub, where they read works in progress and discussed literature, mythology, and theology.
Tolkien and Lewis became close friends after meeting at Oxford. Lewis encouraged Tolkien’s fiction and was among the early listeners to parts of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien, in turn, participated in conversations that supported Lewis’s developing literary and religious ideas.
The Inklings had no formal membership list or constitution, so accounts may mention different regular participants. Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Hugo Dyson were also connected with the group, but Lewis is the best-known fellow member alongside Tolkien.