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.
Sandfield Road
Sandfield Road's most famous resident was the author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien, another member of the Inklings, who lived at No 76 with his wife Edith from 1953 to 1968, towards the end of his time in Oxford. There is an inscription above the garage. When living here, Tolkien attended the Catholic Church of St Anthony of Padua in nearby Headley Way. Tolkien previously lived in Northmoor Road, North Oxford, and Holywell Street, in central Oxford.
The following volumes of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" novel were first published while he lived in this house:Tolkien attended the Church of St Anthony of Padua nearby (opened in 1960) when he was a resident in Sandfield Road. In due course, Tolkien's private address at Sandfield Road received some publicity and his telephone number was in the Oxford telephone directory.
In 1968, partly due to harassment by fans at his home in Sandfield Road, Tolkien moved to Bournemouth on the south coast of England.