Colin Duriez

Last updated

Colin Duriez (born 19 July 1947) is an English writer on fantasy, especially that of the Inklings literary group centred around the Christian authors C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

Contents

Life and works

Colin Duriez was born in Derbyshire on 19 July 1947. [1] He spent his early life in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, in a couple of new council estates near Portsmouth and six years in a mining village in South Wales, before moving to the West Midlands. After school he studied for two years at the University of Istanbul, Turkey, before completing his studies at the University of Ulster in Coleraine, Northern Ireland where he read English and philosophy. After a career in editing and journalism in London, interspersed with some teaching,[ citation needed ] he migrated to Leicester in 1983 to work with a small publisher, IVP, as a commissioning editor. In 2002 he started his own business in Keswick, Cumbria, InWriting, devoted to writing, editorial services, and book acquisition for publishers. [2]

Duriez won the Clyde S. Kilby Award in 1994 for his research on the Inklings, the literary group that included J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. He has been described as "the most useful scholar writing on Lewis today." [3] He has published many books on Christian literary figures, and has spoken to literary, academic and professional groups. [4] His television documentaries include A Quest for Meaning – Myth, Imagination & Faith in the Literature of J.R.R. Tolkien & C.S. Lewis. [5] He lives in Wallingford, Oxfordshire. [5]

Reception

Benjamin C. Parker, reviewing Duriez's Bedeviled: Lewis, Tolkien, and the Shadow of Evil, writes that the strengths of the book include its thorough connection of Lewis's writings to earlier literature on the subject, and his setting of his thesis about the Inklings in terms of 21st century events and literature. Parker finds the analysis of issues related to Christianity "profound", and states that the book is accessible both to academics and the general public, with the more scholarly details relegated to endnotes. [6]

Courtney Petrucci, reviewing The Oxford Inklings: Lewis, Tolkien, and Their Circle, writes that the book's "great strength" is "its effective use of other Inklings' writings to give the reader a sense for what the group was like and how its most prominent members [Lewis, Tolkien, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams] were understood" by the less-famous members. Petrucci finds the book remarkable in succeeding in balancing the coverage, offering fresh "insights and perspectives", and bringing out the complicated ideas that the Inklings discussed while telling the basic story of the group. [7]

John E. McKinley, in his review of the biography Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship and The Inklings Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to the Lives, Thought and Writings of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield and Their Friends, writes that these are "excellent resources" for readers new to Tolkien and Lewis, and useful too to "devoted reader[s]" of their "imaginative and provocative writings". The biography is in McKinley's view unique in showing how the friendship between the two writers stimulated and inspired both of them "to write Christian mythology and apologetics". He adds that Duriez shows that both men were opposed to the "mechanization" of the modern age; both took "delight in imagination"; and both "embrace[d] historic Christianity". [8]

Books

Literary works

Biography

History

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. S. Lewis</span> British writer, lay theologian, and scholar (1898–1963)

Clive Staples Lewis was a British writer, literary scholar, and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalene College, Cambridge (1954–1963). He is best known as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, but he is also noted for his other works of fiction, such as The Screwtape Letters and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, including Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Williams (British writer)</span> British writer, theologian, and literary critic (1886-1945)

Charles Walter Stansby Williams was an English poet, novelist, playwright, theologian and literary critic. Most of his life was spent in London, where he was born, but in 1939 he moved to Oxford with the university press for which he worked and was buried there following his early death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Inklings</span> Informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford, England

The Inklings were an informal literary discussion group associated with J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis at the University of Oxford for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction and encouraged the writing of fantasy. The best-known, apart from Tolkien and Lewis, were Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Sibley</span> English writer

Brian David Sibley is an English writer. He is author of over 100 hours of radio drama and has written and presented hundreds of radio documentaries, features and weekly programmes. He is widely known as the author of many film "making of" books, including those for the Harry Potter series and The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Narnia (world)</span> Fantasy world created by C.S. Lewis, setting of The Chronicles of Narnia

Narnia is a fantasy world created by C. S. Lewis as the primary location for his series of seven fantasy novels for children, The Chronicles of Narnia. The world is named after the country of Narnia, where much of the Chronicles takes place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Eagle and Child</span> Pub in Oxford, England

The Eagle and Child, nicknamed "the Bird and Baby", is a pub in St Giles', Oxford, England, owned by the Ellison Institute of Technology and previously operated by Mitchells & Butlers as a Nicholson's pub. The pub had been part of an endowment belonging to University College since the 17th century. It has associations with the Inklings writers' group which included J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. In 2005, 25 other pubs in the United Kingdom had the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Owen Barfield</span> British philosopher (1898–1997)

Arthur Owen Barfield was an English philosopher, author, poet, critic, and member of the Inklings.

<i>J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator</i> Book by Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull

J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator is a collection of paintings and drawings by J. R. R. Tolkien for his stories, published posthumously in 1995. The book was edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull. It won the 1996 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies. The nature and importance of Tolkien's artwork is discussed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mythopoeic Awards</span> Literary award

The Mythopoeic Awards for literature and literary studies are given annually for outstanding works in the fields of myth, fantasy, and the scholarly study of these areas. Established by the Mythopoeic Society in 1971, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award is given for "fiction in the spirit of the Inklings", and the Scholarship Award for non-fiction work. The award is a statuette of a seated lion, with a plaque on the base. It has drawn resemblance to, and is often called, the "Aslan".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mythopoeic Society</span> Nonprofit organization

The Mythopoeic Society (MythSoc) is a non-profit organization devoted to the study of mythopoeic literature, particularly the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and C. S. Lewis. These men were all members of The Inklings, an informal group of writers who met weekly in Lewis' rooms at Magdalen College, Oxford, from the early 1930s until late 1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramandu's daughter</span> Fictional character in Narnia

Ramandu's daughter, also known as Lilliandil in the 2010 film version of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, is a fictional character from The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. Introduced in the 1952 book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, she aids Caspian X and the crew of Dawn Treader to break an enchantment on three of the Seven Great Lords of Narnia. Eventually she becomes Queen of Narnia, after marrying Caspian X, and bears his son, Rilian. In the 1953 novel The Silver Chair, the Lady of the Green Kirtle, in the form of a snake, kills her though she later reappears in the 1956 book The Last Battle. The character appears in multiple adaptations of the book series; the television serial The Chronicles of Narnia, where she is portrayed by Gabrielle Anwar, and The Chronicles of Narnia film series, where Laura Brent plays the role.

J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy books on Middle-earth, especially The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, drew on a wide array of influences including language, Christianity, mythology, archaeology, ancient and modern literature, and personal experience. He was inspired primarily by his profession, philology; his work centred on the study of Old English literature, especially Beowulf, and he acknowledged its importance to his writings.

<i>The Company They Keep</i> 2007 book by Diana Pavlac Glyer

The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community (2007) is a non-fiction book written by Diana Pavlac Glyer, an Inklings scholar and English professor at Azusa Pacific University. The Company They Keep challenges the commonly held belief that the Inklings did not influence each other through a detailed and engaging examination of both published and unpublished works, papers, and letters written by J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, Warren Lewis and the lesser-known writers who comprised the Inklings.

This is a list of writings by C. S. Lewis.

Clyde Samuel Kilby was an American writer and English professor, best known for his scholarship on the Inklings, especially J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. A professor at Wheaton College (Illinois) for most of his life, Kilby founded the Marion E. Wade Center there, making it a center for the study of the Inklings, their friends, and their influences.

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children written by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages. The series borrows characters and ideas from Classical, Norse, Irish, Arthurian, Islamic, Jewish and Christian mythology. Of all the mythologies taken into consideration, the Christian one is the most fundamental for the Narnia series, due to the themes covered.

Louis Markos is Professor in English at Houston Baptist University, where he holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities.

Alfred Cecil Harwood *05.01.1898 London (UK) †22.12.1975 Forest Row Sussex was a lecturer, Waldorf teacher, writer, editor and anthroposophist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jared Lobdell</span> American historian

Jared Charles Lobdell was an American author and one of the first Tolkien scholars. He is best known for some thirty academic books on American history and the Inklings including J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams.

Jason Fisher is a Tolkien scholar and winner of a Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in 2014 for his book Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays. He served as the editor of the Mythopoeic Society's monthly Mythprint from 2010 to 2013. He is the author of many book chapters, academic articles, and encyclopedia entries on J. R. R. Tolkien.

References

  1. ↑ "Colin Duriez". ISFDB . Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  2. ↑ Belmonte, Kelly (1 February 2013). "Fridays with Friends: Colin Duriez on Lewis, L'Abri, and what it means to be human". All Nine (interview). Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  3. 1 2 Stout, Andrew (Spring–Summer 2015). "The A-Z of C.S. Lewis: An Encyclopedia of His Life, Thought and Writings". Mythlore. 33 (126): 166–8. Retrieved 15 November 2021. Duriez has proven himself to be the most useful scholar writing on Lewis today.
  4. ↑ "Machynlleth Tolkien festival launches on-line magazine". BBC . 24 December 2009. Retrieved 22 December 2010.
  5. 1 2 "About me". Colin Duriez. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  6. ↑ Parker, Benjamin C. (2016). "Review of Bedeviled: Lewis, Tolkien, and the Shadow of Evil, by Colin Duriez". Christianity & Literature. 65 (4). Project MUSE: 521–524.
  7. ↑ Petrucci, Courtney (2017). "Review of The Oxford Inklings: Lewis, Tolkien, and Their Circle". Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal. 11 (1). Article 12. doi:10.55221/1940-5537.1388.
  8. ↑ McKinley, John E. (December 2004). "Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship/The Inklings Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to the Lives, Thought and Writings of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield and Their Friends". Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society Preview publication details. 47 (4): 741–744.
  9. ↑ Patterson, Nancy-Lou (Autumn 1992). "Very Small Pots". Mythlore. 18 (70): 46. Retrieved 15 November 2021. Perhaps the most useful contribution is the entry, "Literary Critic, C.S. Lewis as a," which sets his critical career in the context of the major movements and schools of critical thought not only in his lifetime but to the present: no small feat. Duriez's remarks, though compressed, are telling.
  10. ↑ Hurd, Crystal (Fall–Winter 2015). "The Oxford Inklings". Mythlore. 34 (127): 190–192. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.