May 11, 1926: The Day that Changed Fantasy Forever

By Ashly Moore Sheldon • May 11, 2026

May 11, 1926: The Fellowship of Two Minds

When C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien met at a faculty meeting at Oxford a century ago, they likely had little understanding of the monumental role each would play in the other's life. And perhaps even less of an inkling of the impact their friendship would have on the future of fantasy literature.

It wasn't exactly love at first sight for Lewis who wrote in his journal of meeting Tolkien that there was "no harm in him: only needs a smack or so." The two young scholars eventually bonded over their shared love for mythology, poetry, languages, and storytelling. They found other commonalities as well. Both had lost parents at a young age and faced the horrors of war in World War I.

Their friendship deepened through The Inklings, the informal literary discussion group they formed. The group met regularly at Oxford pubs throughout the 1930s and '40s. The members, including Charles Williams and Owen Barfield, would read aloud from works in progress and provide feedback. It was within this circle that early drafts of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and Lewis's science fiction novel Out of the Silent Planet (1938) were shared and discussed.

Lewis credited Tolkien, a devout Catholic, for his conversion from atheism to Christianity, a transformation he documented in his spiritual autobiography Surprised by Joy. Lewis went on to become one of the twentieth century's most influential Christian apologists, producing works such as Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters.

Tolkien, for his part, has said that Lewis's support was instrumental in bringing The Lord of the Rings to completion. Lewis reviewed the book warmly upon its 1954 publication, and his early championing of Tolkien's work helped establish its reputation. The friendship between the two men inspired the chapter on friendship in Lewis' book The Four Loves.

They were motivated by a shared dissatisfaction with the literature available to them. Tolkien's letters recount that Lewis once said to him, "If they won't write the kinds of books we want to read, we shall have to write them ourselves."

But Tolkien and Lewis weren't always on the same page. Tolkien criticized Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia as being too hastily composed and theologically heavy-handed. Perhaps there was an element of competition to these critiques. Lewis churned out his seven-part series in just seven years while Tolkien toiled over The Lord of the Rings for nearly two decades.

Lewis's close friendship with Charles Williams also came between them in later years. Despite these strains, their relationship remains one of literary history's most remarkable examples of creative friendship and mutual influence.

A fun tidbit: Both authors based characters in their books on one another. Lewis's Elwin Random from Out of the Silent Planet greatly resembles Tolkien. The Professor from the Narnia series was also inspired by Tolkien, while Treebeard from Tolkien's The Two Towers is said to be based on Lewis.

If you're interested in learning more about fantasy's most storied friendship, check out The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski.

More literary friendships

J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis aren't the only high-profile writing buddies we've seen over the years. Here are ten more iconic friendships that have bloomed from the verdant literary landscape.

• Lord Byron and Mary Shelley: It was a stormy summer night in Switzerland in 1816 and the renowned poet was hosting a group of literary figures including an 18-year-old Shelley. Inspired by the weather, Byron issued a challenge to his guests to write ghost stories. This combined with group discussions on creating life and a later nightmare of Shelley gave birth to Frankenstein.
  
  
• Ralph Waldo Emerson and Louisa May Alcott: The author of Little Women became well acquainted with Emerson starting in the 1840s when she was a child in Concord, Massachusetts. A close neighbor and friend to her family, the renowned essayist of Self-Reliance became a father figure and mentor to the budding young writer giving her access to his extensive library.
  
  
• Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins: In the spring of 1851, a young Collins was recruited to join the amateur theatrical company of the already well-established author of David Copperfield. Thus began a lasting friendship. Dickens employed Collins for a time, but after the 1860 publication of The Woman in White, Collins became a success in his own right.
  
  
• Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell: The North and South author was fifteen years older than Brontë and took a protective, supportive role towards the younger, less conventional author of Jane Eyre. Two years after Brontë's death in 1855, Gaskell published The Life of Charlotte Brontë, a pioneering, yet controversial, biography of her friend.
  
  
• Mark Twain and Helen Keller: The author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was 60 when he met the 14-year-old Keller in 1895. Twain admired her immensely, calling her the "eighth wonder of the world." He helped secure financial support for her education at Radcliffe College. They bonded over wit, shared politics, and corresponded frequently until his death in 1910.
  
  
• F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway: The two Lost Generation authors met in Paris in 1925. Fitzgerald recognized Hemingway's raw talent and famously recommended him to his editor, while Hemingway considered The Great Gatsby a masterpiece. However, the relationship was marked by conflict and in Hemingway's memoir, A Moveable Feast, he criticized Fitzgerald.
  
  
• Truman Capote and Harper Lee: Growing up as neighbors and childhood friends in Alabama during the 1920s and '30s, the two aspiring authors wrote stories using a shared typewriter given by Lee's father; Lee reportedly based the character Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird on Capote. Lee was also instrumental in helping Capote with his research for In Cold Blood.
  
  
• Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton: The authors of The Bell Jar and Transformations met in a 1959 Boston University Writing seminar. They bonded over shared experiences of mental illness, intense ambition, and societal constraints on women, often sharing discussions over martinis. Both transformed intimate, often taboo subjects—suicide, motherhood, and female rage—into art.
  
  
• Toni Morrison and James Baldwin: When they met in 1973, Morrison, then an editor at Random House, tried unsuccessfully to sign the Giovanni's Room author. Nonetheless, the two shared a profound, lifelong friendship. After Baldwin's death in 1987, the Beloved author eulogized her mentor, saying, "You gave me a language to dwell in... You knew, didn't you, how I loved your love?"
  
  
• Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy: The two authors met in 1981 during their first year at Sarah Lawrence College. Their bond was further forged as roommates at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Their two-decade friendship is chronicled in Patchett's memoir, Truth & Beauty. Grealy is best known for Autobiography of a Face detailing her childhood cancer and facial reconstruction.

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