C. S. Lewis and His Circle: Essays and Memoirs from the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society

For over thirty years, the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society has met weekly in the medieval colleges of the University of Oxford. During that time, it has hosted as speakers nearly all those still living who were associated with the Inklings-the Oxford literary circle led by C. S. Lewis--as well as authors and thinkers of a prominence that nears Lewis’s own.

C. S. Lewis and His Circle offers the reader a chance to join this unique group. Roger White has worked with Society past presidents Brendan and Judith Wolfe to select the most important talks, which are here made available to the wider public for the first time. They exemplify the best of traditional academic essays, thoughtful memoirs, and informal reminiscences about C. S. Lewis and his circle. The reader will reimagine Lewis’s Cosmic Trilogy with former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, read philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe’s final word on Lewis’s arguments for Christianity, hear the Reverend Peter Bide’s memories of marrying Lewis and Joy Davidman in an Oxford hospital, and learn about Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles from his former secretary.

Representing the finest of both personal and scholarly engagement with C. S. Lewis and the Inklings, the talks collected here set a new tone for engagement with this iconic Oxford literary circle--a tone close to Lewis’s own Oxford--bred sharpness and wryness, seasoned with good humor and genuine affection for C. S. Lewis and his circle.

Roger White is curator of the Inklings Special Collection for the University Libraries as well as Professor of Ministry for the Seminary at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California.

Judith Wolfe is Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Theology and the Arts at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. She has published widely on C. S. Lewis and is the founding general editor of the Journal of Inklings Studies.

Brendan N. Wolfe is a Germanic philologist at Oxford, editor of the Journal of Inklings Studies, and past president and secretary of the C. S. Lewis Society of Oxford University.