“J. R. R. Tolkien believed in his friend C. S. Lewis so much that he nominated Lewis for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
"When Lewis died, Tolkien wrote about “the unpayable debt” he owed him. The greatest of those debts, he said, was Lewis’s “sheer encouragement” over many years to keep writing.
“He was for long my only audience,” Tolkien explained. “Only from him did I ever get the idea that my ‘stuff’ could be more than a private hobby. But for his interest and unceasing eagerness for more, I should never have brought The Lord of the Rings to a conclusion. We owed each a great debt to the other, and that tie, with the deep affection that it begot, remained.”
Lewis spoke in similar terms about Tolkien and their circle of friends:
“What I owe them is incalculable,” he wrote. “Is any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire?”
Their friendship helped give birth to some of the most beloved books ever written, including The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Together, those worlds of hobbits, lions, wardrobes, and wandering kings have sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide. A reminder that sometimes, behind every great writer, there is a friend feeding the fire while the rest of the world sleeps.”*
***
We’ve seen countless times how professionals and/or ordinary folks on the same journey, dedicated to a noble cause, become enemies. Thank God that wasn’t the case with Tolkien and Lewis! Oh, the literature we would’ve missed!
Other than Oxford, the comradery among the Inklings, and the superior intellect of these men, was there another glue that bound them together?
When they met, Tolkien was a Christian and Lewis an atheist. Their discussions and differences continued, all the while their friendship and respect grew, too. What was the clincher, the moment Lewis yielded to the truth of the Gospel?
Heaven knows!
There are hundreds of authors from our borders and beyond within American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). I help facilitate two online critique groups, and I am so thankful for the family we’ve become. Thank God, we can relate to the bond that strengthened Tolkien and Lewis on their literary journey.
But no one can express this joy as well as God’s word:
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is *Classic Literature, posted by Jane Baker 5
For brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Ps. 133:1, NKJV)
(I am blessed that Jane is one of my critique partners!)
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