Weblog (a.k.a. the founding editor of this newsletter, Ted Olsen) and I, having attended the college (Wheaton) where Lewis's wardrobe resides, can throw around a term like "Inkling" without really thinking about it. I think I slipped it into our new Dante issue twice. But for anyone who's not familiar with the insider reference, here's the back story on one of the most fascinating extracurricular clubs in history.

Without doubt, Lewis's creative and theological genius was stimulated by his weekly meetings with the Inklings, a collection of thinkers and friends who gathered regularly to critique each other's writing and to discuss current events and life in general. The name of the group was transferred from a defunct Oxford literary society of which Lewis and Tolkien had been members to a group of friends who gathered in Lewis's rooms at Magdalen College every Thursday night. Usually present were C.S. Lewis, his brother Warren Lewis, Tolkien, Dr. R.E. Havard, and Charles Williams. Other attenders included Nevill Coghill, Hugo Dyson, Owen Barfield, and Adam Fox.

In the Inklings' heyday, C.S. Lewis held a fellowship in language and ...