W. H. Auden, who attended Tolkien's lectures as an
undergraduate, was also an occasional correspondent and was on friendly terms
with Tolkien from the mid-1950s until Tolkien's death, initiated by Auden's
fascination with The Lord of the Rings. Auden was among the most prominent early critics to praise
the work. Tolkien wrote in a 1971 letter:
"I
am [...] very deeply in Auden's debt in recent years. His support of me and
interest in my work has been one of my chief encouragements. He gave me very
good reviews, notices and letters from the beginning when it was by no means a
popular thing to do. He was, in fact, sneered at for it".
W.H. Auden, one of Charles Williams greatest admirers, reportedly re-read Williams’s extraordinary and
highly unconventional history of the church, Descent of the Dove(1939), every year.
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1 comment:
Loosely leaping from "Auden & the Inklings" to "MacDonald & the Inklings"
... having enjoyed your blog entries for some years it struck me that you might be interested in knowing about an upcoming Oxford Conference: "Informing the Inklings: George MacDonald & the Victorian Roots of Modern Fantasy". I don't think I can attach the 'Call For Papers' here, but you can find that and general conference information at: www.george-macdonald.com/macdonaldsociety/conference2014.html
All the best,
and with thanks for your continued work,
kjj
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