J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: A legendary friendship
Though my friend Colin Duriez's book Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship is no longer new, the interview I did with him when the book came out in 2003 is still fun to read. Whether you are a casual reader of these authors or an aficionado, Duriez's books about them are packed with revelations. See especially his various Handbooks on Lewis, Tolkien, and the Inklings authors who met for conversation in Lewis's Oxford rooms. They are filled with non-trivial details–"meaty," I'd say–and interpretive insights that help to contextualize and explain the works of these beloved authors.
A new book reveals how these two famous friends conspired to bring myth and legend—and Truth—to modern readers.
Chris Armstrong
Our world would be poorer without two other worlds: Narnia and Middle-earth. Yet if two young professors had not met at an otherwise ordinary Oxford faculty meeting in 1926, those wondrous lands would still be unknown to us.
British author Colin Duriez, who wrote the article "Tollers and Jack" in issue #78 of Christian History, explains why this is so in his forthcoming book Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship (Hidden Spring). Duriez tells the story of how these two brilliant authors met, discovered their common love for mythical tales, and pledged to bring such stories into the mainstream of public reading taste. Continue reading →
Tagged C S Lewis, Colin Duriez, fairy stories, fantasy, fantasy writing, friendship, J R R Tolkien, medievalism, Middle-earth, myth, Narnia, Oxford University, romanticism, story, The Chronicles of Narnia, the Inklings, The Lord of the Rings