Charles Williams: The Third Inkling (2015), by Grevel Lindop
Last Friday, besides being the occasion of so much family fun, also saw the arrival of this volume in the early hours of the day. I had been waiting for it quite some time, which might be explained by its origin as being "Withdrawn from the Guille-Alles Library." That directed my curiosity to discover that this was on Guernsy, one of a small group of independent islands, somewhat closer to France than to England, but a Crown Dependency, if not a formal part of the Empire. Inhabitants of these islands have included T. H. White and Mervyn Peake.
The book itself, as far as I know, is the first fully in-depth biography of Charles Williams, the so-called 'Third Inkling', the group of writers that included most famously C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. There have been other books about Williams in this capacity as a member of the circle, but they have focused mainly on his poetry, novels, and religious writings, not so much on his unconventional personal life and its details, or even an assessment of Williams' place in literature.
As Lindop points out in his Preface, Williams was quite famous in the 30's and 40's, supported by the likes of T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, and C. S. Lewis, famous for his literary criticism, lectures, and as a notable dramatist. But he is largely forgotten today except as a sort of fringe enthusiasm. His unfortunate death, overshadowed by the end of World War Two, and the subsequent inexpert handling of his literary estate put him in eclipse for decades. If it were not for his association with the Inklings, he might be nothing more than a footnote today.
It is Lindop's self-appointed task to bring what he contends is a great poet out of undeserved obscurity, to take him out of the shadow of his towering colleagues, and allow a clearer assessing of his life and his accomplishments. And this meaty, nearly 500 page offering from the Oxford University Press, looks to be a very firm first step on that path.
As a bit of a bonus, I append the cover of my first copy of All Hallows' Eve, now residing in the Shadow Library. I find out only now (of course) that it was a rather rare edition.
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