Which writer did C.S. Lewis dedicate The Screwtape Letters to?

C.S. Lewis dedicated The Screwtape Letters to J.R.R. Tolkien.

The dedication appears at the beginning of the 1942 book and addresses Tolkien as “my dear Tolkien.” Lewis and Tolkien were colleagues at Oxford and members of the Inklings, an informal literary circle that met mainly at The Eagle and Child pub and in Oxford rooms. Their friendship included conversations about literature, myth, language, and Christianity.

Tolkien’s influence on Lewis was especially important during Lewis’s movement from atheism toward Christian belief. Tolkien helped Lewis think about how myth could convey truth, although the two men developed very different fictional worlds and literary projects.

The dedication does not mean Tolkien wrote or edited The Screwtape Letters. Lewis wrote the book himself, using letters from a senior demon to a junior tempter as a satirical form. The dedication honors a friend and fellow writer rather than identifying a collaborator. Charles Williams and Owen Barfield were also associated with the Inklings, which is why they can be tempting alternative answers.