C. S. Lewis
Lewis was commissioned to write the volume "English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Excluding Drama)" for the Oxford History of English Literature, His book "A Preface to "Paradise Lost"" is still cited as a criticism of that work. His last academic work, "The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature" (1964), is a summary of the medieval world view, a reference to the "discarded image" of the cosmos.
Lewis was a prolific writer, and his circle of literary friends became an informal discussion society known as the "Inklings", including J. R. R. Tolkien, Nevill Coghill, Lord David Cecil, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and his brother Warren Lewis. Glyer points to December 1929 as the Inklings' beginning date. Lewis's friendship with Coghill and Tolkien grew during their time as members of the Kolbítar, an Old Norse reading group that Tolkien founded and which ended around the time of the inception of the Inklings. At Oxford, he was the tutor of poet John Betjeman, critic Kenneth Tynan, mystic Bede Griffiths, novelist Roger Lancelyn Green and Sufi scholar Martin Lings, among many other undergraduates. Curiously, the religious and conservative Betjeman detested Lewis, whereas the anti-establishment Tynan retained a lifelong admiration for him.
British literature
A major work of science fiction, from the early 20th century, is "A Voyage to Arcturus" by Scottish writer David Lindsay, first published in 1920, and was a central influence on C. S. Lewis's "Space Trilogy".
From the early 1930s to late 1940s, an informal literary discussion group associated with the English faculty at the University of Oxford were "The Inklings". Its leading members were the major fantasy novelists; J. R. R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Lewis is known for "The Screwtape Letters" (1942), "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "The Space Trilogy", while Tolkien is best known as the author of "The Hobbit" (1937), "The Lord of the Rings", and "The Silmarillion".