TCG Letter #671 / Carpenter Letter #298

White had written to Tolkien asking for information regarding the Inklings. Tolkien replies with some brief information "from memory". He says that the name was invented by either he or Lewis and he describes it as an "undergraduate jest". He says that an undergraduate, Tangye-Lean ahd started the group but that it died quickly after but he and Lewis continued it in Lewis's rooms. He continues that Lewis liked to her things read aloud. It was at these gatherings that Tolkien's writings in his 'Secondary world' would be read and receive feedback, soemtimes quite harsh.

This letter was printed, apparently without permission, with Tolkien’s address and private telephone number at the head of it, in White’s book The Image of Man in C. S. Lewis (1969).

A complete transcript taken from The Image of Man in C.S. Lewis is held at the archive.