Exploring the Creative Collaboration of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien: An In-Depth Look at the Inklings with Bandersnatch

WLegerton: Such an incredible read and one to keep in the library for future reads and generations

United States on Aug 01, 2023

Stanley James Hanna: This is a must read for anyyone in the arts and literature world. It explores and emphasizes the absolute necessity of collaboration. We all like to think we can go it alone. Glyer points out the folly and detriment of that notion. If some of the greatest authors of all time needed the benefit of working together what makes any of us as writers and poets think we do not? I am grateful for Ms. Glyer's research and dogged efforts to bring this to our attention. It is a labour of love and much needed.

Canada on Feb 02, 2021

Mark A. Sommer: The Inklings was an Oxford writers group which met during the 1930s and 40s, and included JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. It is unusual for a writers group to garner the attention the Inklings have over the years. A few select scholars have devoted much of their lives to not only studying the lives of the men who were part of this group, but the group as a whole. As early as 1979, scholars such as Humphrey Carpenter realized the importance of the interaction of the Inklings to their lives and writings. Colin Duriez' recent book has helped amend and clarify much of what we thought we knew. In 2007, Diana Pavlac Glyer went a step further in her book, The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community, examining the extent of influence the Inklings had on each other's writings. Glyer may not be as well known to Inklings fans as Carpenter and Duriez, but she is considered one the foremost Inklings scholars in the academic world.

Bandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings is the newly published adaptation of her 2007 book, re-written for a wider audience. The Company they Keep was meant for academic use....

United States on Jul 05, 2016

Colin Duriez: Any writer, no matter how talented, can benefit from the creative collaboration of a writing group, in giving honest advice and encouragement. Demonstrating this, Diana Glyer provides a unique, inspiring and captivating resource for the writer-in-group (even a small group). She draws richly upon the experience of the Inklings, one of literature's most well-known groups: their art of collaboration that can still mentor and sustain writers today.
Colin Duriez, author of THE OXFORD INKLINGS, LEWIS, TOLKIEN AND THEIR CIRCLE; J.R.R. TOLKIEN: THE MAKING OF A LEGEND; C.S. LEWIS: A BIOGRAPHY OF FRIENDSHIP; etc.

United Kingdom on Jul 04, 2016

M. Mueller: Years ago I heard that there were those among the biographers of Tolkien who believed that the members of the Inklings did not have a significant influence on his creative work, and possibly not much on other members’ writings either. That never made sense to me: how in the world could these brilliant thinkers meet every week for decades to read drafts of their new work and *not* influence each other? Diana Pavlac Glyer has dispelled that misperception for good with her meticulously researched and insightful book, "The Company They Keep," which is recognized as a benchmark of scholarship for understanding how Inklings worked and the impact they had on each other. "Bandersnatch" was written for a different purpose, but it rests on and draws from the breadth and depth of her prior research and analysis.

If you are already an Inklings fan, here is a feast of tasty morsels to savor! The author gives example after example from letters, margin notes, dedications, conversations, diaries and the like to show how the works of members of the Inklings were shaped by the others. For example, Tolkien was floundering in his attempt to produce a “Hobbit sequel” until Lewis gave a...

United States on Jan 01, 2016