The Inklings and King Arthur: J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield on the Matter of Britain edited by Sørina Higgins–News & Notices.
In the midst of war-torn Britain, King Arthur returned in the writings of the Oxford Inklings. Learn how Tolkien, Lewis, Williams, and Barfield brought hope to their times and our own in their Arthurian literature. Although studies of the “Oxford Inklings” abound, astonishingly enough, none has yet examined their great body of Arthurian work. Yet each of these major writers tackled serious and relevant questions about government, gender, violence, imperialism, secularism, and spirituality through their stories of the Quest for the Holy Grail. This rigorous and sophisticated volume studies does so for the first time.
Where to acquire the book:
The Inklings and King Arthur: J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield on the Matter of Britain is available for sale on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online venues. You can also order it from your local bookstore using ISBN 978-1944769895. If you have a major journal or high-volume website for which you would be willing to review the book, contact me for a complimentary review copy.
2018 Mythopoeic Award Recipient:
The Inklings and King Arthur has won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies — only the fourth time an edited collection has done so. This award “is given to books on Tolkien, Lewis, and/or Williams that make significant contributions to Inklings scholarship.” Congratulations to all of my chapter-writers for their work.
Interviews and Conversations:
- Interview with Ken Myers of the Mars Hill Audio Journal.
- Interview with Glenn McDorman on Agnus: The Late Antiquity, Medieval, and Byzantine Podcast.
- “Arthur of the Century”: An interview with Alan Sisto and Shawn E. Marchese on The Prancing Pony Podcast (episode 102).
- “Sorina Higgins Discusses Charles Williams and the Inklings” on Image for Hire; interview by performance artist and amateur magician “The Skräuss” on WXRW, RiverWest Radio, Milwaukee.
- Interview with William O’Flaherty on All About Jack, a feature of Essential C. S. Lewis.com.
- Signum Symposium: The Inklings & King Arthur Roundtable with host Corey Olsen and guests Sørina Higgins, Brenton Dickieson, and Malcolm Guite.
Reviews:
- “C.S. Lewis & the Inklings Seated at the Round Table” by Robert Stroud on Mere Inkling.
- “An Inherently Meaningful Cosmos” by Ben Lockerd in The University Bookman.
- Meditation on Arthuriana, superheroes, and The Inklings and King Arthur by Sam Edgin in The Englewood Review of Books.
- Review by Gabriel Schenk in the Journal of Tolkien Research.
- “A personal enthusiasm” by Philip Jenkins, a Baylor colleague, at Patheos
- Notice in Christians in Library and Information Services No. 78, Spring 2018.
- Review by John D. Rateliff in Tolkien Studies volume 15.
- Amazon review by S. P. Cooper, aka Akademician.
- Goodreads review by Andrew Higgins (no relation).
Blog Posts:
- Some great photos of the book at the Marion E. Wade Center by Brenton Dickieson
- “Text and Intertext ” by Richard Abbott.
- Series of guest posts curated by David Llewellyn Dodds on A Pilgrim in Narnia, website of Brenton D. G. Dickieson.
- The Launch of The Inklings and King Arthur by Stephen Winter on Wisdom from The Lord of the Rings.
- The book gets a shout-out in this survey of “The Literature of Albion” by Paul Fletcher.
News:
- Notice at Malvern College, where contributor Bradley Wells is Head of English.
Social Media:
- #InklingsAndArthur has a Pinterest board…
- and an Insta account. Check them out and send me your images to add!
Sørina Higgins 