Awards and Honors

Hugo Award Nomination
Choice Recommended Book
Imperishable Flame for Tolkien Studies


Comments and Reviews about The Company They Keep.

    Diana Glyer's is the best account we have, not only of the friendship between Lewis and Tolkien, and the other Inklings, but also of the practical help and support they offered to each other: as critics, editors, collaborators, motivators. For both Lewis and Tolkien, the spark came from flint and steel, and Diana Glyer shows the many ways they struck it. Her book is an indispensible account not just of friendship, but also of the paths of creativity.
-Tom Shippey, Author of The Road to Middle-earth and J.R.R. Tolkien, Author of the Century

    With unerring aim, Diana Glyer puts an arrow right through the heart of the mistaken notion that the Inklings did not  influence one another. Having slain that canard, she then brings to life, with great care and dexterity, the truth that Lewis, Tolkien, and the others in their circle, enriched, informed, and critiqued one another's work in numerous ways and at many different levels. Detailed and thorough, The Company They Keep never loses sight of the larger picture, and it concludes with telling observations about the importance - indeed, the necessity - of friendship and community to the realisation of individual talent. This is an indispensable contribution to the study of what may fairly be called the 20th century's most influential group of writers.
-Michael Ward, author of Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis and co-editor of the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis

      What this book contributes to our world is a careful study of how the influence of our friends can make us better. In addition to being a great story of a particularly influential writing group, it might serve as a manual for how to act as a friendly critic within a writing membership.
-Green Man Review

    Tolkien and Lewis formed the spine of the Inklings, regularly convening to read and discuss one another's work in Lewis's rooms at Magdalen College. There were nineteen members in all, and Glyer excels at depicting their world.
-The Times Literary Supplement

    Reading the remarkable The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community   proves that Diana Pavlac Glyer has vaulted into the company of the very best thinkers and writers on the Inklings.
-Mythlore

    This is an impressive piece of work, and it has the great merit of being both authentically scholarly and entertaining at the same time. If the word "community" might put you off for a moment, suspecting a sociological study, just start reading. You will find yourself drawn straightaway into an account of things that (I'll wager) would have the Inklings themselves turning the pages.
- Thomas Howard, Ph.D., Author of The Novels of Charles Williams, Evangelical Is Not Enough: Worship of God in Liturgy and Sacrament, Lead, Kindly Light: My Journey to Rome, and Splendor in the Ordinary: Your Home as a Holy Place.

    As an account of Tolkien, Lewis, Williams, and the other Inklings, The Company They Keep  supercedes Humphrey Carpenter's volume, being more comprehensive, deeper, better-argued, and with a more coherent purpose.
-EduGeek.net

    This is a wonderful book. I devoured it. I love the fact that these great writers authored their material in community. It takes their skills out of the mythical into the possible.
-Daniel Maat, Grand Rapids, MI

    Glyer's well-chosen quotes bring these men alive. A young scholar new to the Inklings' work could enjoy this book and follow the arguments with as much enthusiasm as those of us long acquainted with these writers.
- SFSite.com

    The best book on Lewis since David Downing's Most Reluctant Convert is Diana Pavlac Glyer's engaging and comprehensive study of that formidable writers group known as the Inklings. The impressive documentation featured throughout is complemented by the stirring annotated bibliography provided by David Bratman, components that only increase the value of this amazing work that should be in every library, and on the shelf of every Lewis enthusiast. This volume so surpasses in wisdom and cogency of the late Humphrey Carpenter's The Inklings, I would urge you to sell your copy back to the used bookstore from whence it may have come, take the proceeds, and buy this one. It is a model of responsive, responsible, lucidly written scholarly work worthy of Lewis's own high standards. It both educates and entertains.
-Further Up & Further In  Blog Archives


    The Company They Keep is a marvelous book - fascinating, enjoyable, vastly informative and full of leads for future study. Glyer should be congratulated on the heroically comprehensive scholarship, which makes it an indispensable resource. For me, however, reading it was simply pure enjoyment! - diving into another and delightful world. It is simply a tremendous reading experience. I hope the book is soon issued in paperback, so it can reach a wider readership - but I am pleased to have the more durable hardback since it's likely to get heavily used over the years.
-Bruce G. Charlton, M.D., Reader in Evolutionary Psychiatry, Department of Psychology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and Editor-in-Chief, Medical Hypotheses


    Glyer sees the hidden currents that serve as influences among writers, which makes this book as much a study about the act of writing in community as it is about the Inklings themselves. In other words, one need not be interested in the Inklings to be drawn in. It's a fascinating case-study in group dynamics and the creative process, and because the two main subjects of the book, Tolkien and Lewis, also happen to be two of the past century's most important writers, the book serves as a lens into the mechanism of genius as well.
-APU Research Reporter (May 2007)


    Glyer's prose is not only a delight to read, but it is also full of keen analysis and valuable insight into the nature of the Inklings' complicated interrelationship. The Company They Keep is truly an important contribution to Inklings studies as well as an excellent example of how literary critics can approach the thorny issue of influence in a careful, balanced way.
-Mythprint: The Monthly Bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society (May 2007)


    The Company They Keep is a must for university libraries with strong Inklings collections or that serve institutions with creative writing programs.
-Tolkien Studies (2007)


    The beauty of this book lies in the clarity and eloquence of the author’s prose. It is one of those extraordinary academic works that is actually easy and enjoyable to read. Whether you are a new fan of these authors or you have been studying them for years, you will find plenty to enjoy within the pages of this book.
-theonering.com


    Here's the thing. Glyer obviously did her homework. I see many familiar quotes, always used in the right place, never distorted or misemployed. She's also found some good stuff that I've never read, or haven't read for years and years. She has an impressive bibliography (anyone wishing to study the Inklings ought to buy the book for the bibliography in and of itself) and superlative notes. But here's the real appeal: the engaging, lucid, crystal clear writing style that graces her steel-strong research.
-Sherwood Smith, author of Crown Duel, Inda, and The Fox


    The Company They Keep is an astonishingly thorough work, lucidly and boldly illuminating the collaborative writing processes of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and their colleagues during the most fruitful period of their careers. Diana Glyer's impressive achievement immediately supersedes in scope and authority all previous treatments of the Inklings.
-Bruce L. Edwards, Professor of English, Bowling Green State University, Associate Dean of Continuing & Extended Education, Author of Not-a-Tame Lion, Further Up and Further In, and A Rhetoric of Reading, editor of C. S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy


    I found myself captured by her engaging writing style, the breadth of her research, and the cogency of her argument. Her work will influence the texture of Inklings scholarship for years to come. It's good, very good indeed.
-Verlyn Flieger, Professor of English, University of Maryland at College Park, Co-editor (with Douglas Anderson and Michael Drout) of Tolkien Studies, Author of Splintered Light, A Question of Time, and Interrupted Music


    This engaging study deserves a place in the library of all those who value the works of the Inklings. It is also a worthwhile volume for any who are interested in examining the craft of writing and the impact of creating within community.
-Marjorie Lamp Mead, Wheaton College, Associate Director of the Marion E. Wade Center and managing editor of Seven, Co-author of A Reader’s Guide Through the Wardrobe, Co-editor of C. S. Lewis: Letters to Children and Brothers and Friends


    Despite many indications to the contrary, the myth persists that between J. R. R. Tolkien and the other major Inklings there was little significant influence. Now at last we have a book which meticulously assembles the evidence to disprove that idea and show the varied ways the whole group of Inklings influenced one another. The appendix by David Bratman is a treasure trove of biographical and bibliographical information on all nineteen of the Inklings.
-Charles A. Huttar, Professor Emeritus, Hope College, Co-editor of Word and Story in C. S. Lewis and The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams


    A great deal of what is written about C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and the rest of the Inklings circle is amateurish in the bad sense: informed by much enthusiasm and little knowledge or judgment. Therefore, I was delighted to receive, and to have the opportunity to review, a volume worthy of its subjects: Diana Pavlac Glyer’s just-published The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community.
-Tom Veal on Stromata Blog


    If there is one book that really has impressed me, it is Diana Glyer's The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. I read the review by Josh B. Long and needed to read the book for myself. And read I did. While the content of the book is very great, important facts are discussed and compared, and there is tons of interesting information, it remains easy and is very enjoyable to read. This book is a must have for Tolkien and Inkling lovers!
-Pieter Collier, Founder and Webmaster of TolkienLibrary.com


    The Company They Keep is an absolute treasure trove of sparkling insight and in-depth research. A jewel to any library!
-Herenistarion.org


    The Company They Keep certainly contributes to the ongoing conversation about Lewis, Tolkien, and the others, but rather than being an addition to that conversation, this book will undoubtedly redirect its course. From now on, the rest of us will talk about these pivotal writers and scholars differently. Glyer has taken these writers—and by extension all artists and scholars—out of their solitary towers and placed them back in the community where they belong.
-David Esselstrom, chair, Department of English, Azusa Pacific University