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.
Thomas Alan Shippey is a British medievalist, a retired scholar of Middle and Old English literature as well as of modern fantasy and science fiction. He is considered one of the world's leading academic experts on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien about whom he has written several books and many scholarly papers. His book The Road to Middle-Earth has been called "the single best thing written on Tolkien".
Arthur Owen Barfield was a British philosopher, author, poet, critic, and member of the Inklings.
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.
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".
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, all members of The Inklings, an informal group of writers who met weekly in C. S. Lewis' rooms at Magdalen College, Oxford, from the early 1930s through late 1949.
Mike Glyer is both the editor and publisher of the long-running science fiction fan newszine File 770. He has won the Hugo Award 12 times in two categories: File 770 won the Best Fanzine Hugo in 1984, 1985, 1989, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2016 and 2018. Glyer won the Best Fan Writer Hugo in 1984, 1986, 1988, and 2016. The 1982 World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) committee presented Glyer a special award in 1982 for "Keeping the Fan in Fanzine Publishing."
Adam Fox (1883–1977), Canon, was the Dean of Divinity at Magdalen College, Oxford. He was one of the first members of the literary group "Inklings". He was Oxford Professor of Poetry and later he became Canon of Westminster Abbey. He was also warden of Radley College.
Charles Leslie Wrenn (1895–1969) was an English scholar. After taking an MA at the University of Oxford, he worked for a year as a lecturer in the department of English Language and Literature at the University of Leeds in 1928–29. Following his return to Oxford, he became Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in 1945, the successor in the chair of J.R.R. Tolkien, and held the position until 1963. Wrenn was a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. He was also a member of the Oxford literary discussion group known as the "Inklings", which included C. S. Lewis and Tolkien, and met for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. Some of the work published by Wrenn includes The English Language (1949), A Study of Old English Literature (1967), and An Old English Grammar, written with Randolph Quirk. His literary interests were primarily comparative literature and later poets including T. S. Eliot.
Walter McGehee Hooper was an American writer and literary advisor of the estate of C.S. Lewis. He was a literary trustee for Owen Barfield from December 1997 to October 2006.
Douglas Allen Anderson is an American writer and editor on the subjects of fantasy and medieval literature, specializing in textual analysis of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. He is a winner of the Mythopoeic Award for scholarship.
Verlyn Flieger is an author, editor, and Professor Emerita in the Department of English at the University of Maryland at College Park, where she taught courses in comparative mythology, medieval literature, and the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. She is well known as a Tolkien scholar, especially for her books Splintered Light and A Question of Time. She has won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award four times for her work on Tolkien's Middle-earth writings.
Richard Purtill (1931-2016) was an American philosopher and writer, and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington, US. He was a writer of fantasy and science fiction, critical non-fiction on the same genres, and various works on religion and philosophy. He is best known for his novels of the "Kaphtu" universe. He wrote as both Richard Purtill and Richard L. Purtill, a variant form of his name. He was active in professional writing circles, being a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Authors Guild and the National Writers Union.
Ronald Buchanan McCallum was a British historian. He was a fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, where he taught modern history and politics and was a member of J. R. R. Tolkien's Inklings. McCallum was also the creator of the term psephology.
Diana Pavlac Glyer is an American author, speaker and teacher whose work centers on C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and the Inklings. She teaches in the Honors College at Azusa Pacific University in California.
The Road to Middle-earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology is a scholarly study of the Middle-earth works of J. R. R. Tolkien written by Tom Shippey and first published in 1982. The book discusses Tolkien's philology, and then examines in turn the origins of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and his minor works. An appendix discusses Tolkien's many sources. Two further editions extended and updated the work, including a discussion of Peter Jackson's film version of The Lord of the Rings.
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.
Glen GoodKnight (1941-2010) was the founder of the Mythopoeic Society and the editor of its journal, Mythlore between 1970 and 1998; in that time the publication grew from being a fan magazine to a peer-reviewed academic journal. He was an expert on and collector of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and his fellow Inklings, 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.
Master of Middle-earth: The Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien is a 1972 book of literary criticism of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings, written by Paul H. Kocher. It focuses especially on the best-selling novel The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and also covers some of his minor works such as "Leaf by Niggle" and "Smith of Wootton Major". It was one of the earliest book-length analyses of Tolkien's work, winning Kocher the 1973 Mythopoeic Society's Scholarship in Inkling Studies Award.
