S9E23: “Charles Williams Month – The Third Inkling”, After Hours with Grevil Lindop

Today we begin a (long overdue) month exploring the “third Inkling”, Charles Williams…

 Click here to download audio for S9E23: “The Third Inkling”

Show Notes

Introduction

Welcome friends to Pints With Jack! 

When one calls to mind the Inklings, one thinks first and foremost of Lewis and Tolkien. However, there were other members. We’ve previously had an episode on Dr. Harvard, and we had a month looking at Owen Barfield, but today we will begin a month exploring Charles Williams… which is why this episode began with an extract from Lewis’ first ever letter to him. 

We will be kicking off our exploration of this lesser-known Inkling by looking in broad terms at his life, his work, and thought. Guiding us through this will be Grevel Lindop, the author of the Charles Williams biography, “The Third Inkling”.

Quote-of-the-Week

[Dear Mr Williams,]

I never know about writing to an author. If you are older than I, I don’t want to seem impertinent: if you are younger, I don’t want to seem patronizing. But I feel I must risk it.

A book sometimes crosses ones path which is so like the sound of ones native language in a strange country that it feels almost uncivil not to wave some kind of flag in answer. I have just read your Place of the Lion and it is to me one of the major literary events of my life–comparable to my first discovery of George Macdonald, G. K. Chesterton, or Wm. Morris…

[Nevill] Coghill… put me on to the book: I have put on Tolkien… and my brother. So there are three dons and one soldier all buzzing with excited admiration. We have a sort of informal club called the Inklings… Can you come down some day next term… spend the night as my guest in College, eat with us at a chop house, and talk with us till the small hours. Meantime, a thousand thanks.

C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis, Letter to Charles Williams

Biography

Grevel Lindop is an award-winning British poet, critic, travel writer and biographer. After a successful academic career, he became a freelance writer in 2001. 

His highly-praised “Selected Poems” appeared in 2001 and a new collection, “Playing With Fire”, in 2006. He is the author of…

• “The Opium-Eater: A Life of Thomas De Quincey”
• The award-winning “Literary Guide to the Lake District” 
• …as well as the book which we’ll discuss today, “Charles Williams: The Third Inkling”.

A keen salsa dancer, he reached BBC Radio 4’s ‘Book of the Week’ slot in 2008 with “Travels on the Dance Floor”, in which he explored Latin America in pursuit of music and dance, meeting a host of extraordinary characters on the way…

Chit Chat

• If our listeners didn’t know, David is actually a salsa dancer as well! He’s done it for many years, and has even taught classes.
• Mr. Lindop introduced to salsa dancing by a friend, and decided as a New Year’s resolution to try it. After a few weeks of classes, he was hooked, seduced not only by the music’s complexity, but by the depth of its cultural ties and history.

Toast

• Mr. Lindop had a glass of tea.
• David was also drinking tea, a strong Yorkshire Gold.

Discussion

01. “Entry Into the Inklings”

Q. To begin with, would you please tell us about how you discovered the Inklings?

• Mr. Lindop has been reading Inklings literature his entire life. Beginning with C. S. Lewis’s “The Chronicles of Narnia” as a young boy, he moved on to J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”, and has been reading both authors ever since. But he never heard of Charles Williams, and his introduction to him came about in quite a unique way.
• A practitioner of Buddhist meditations for decades, Mr. Lindop’s meditation teacher actually recommended his novels. He set off to find one, and picked up “War in Heaven” a story about the theft of the Holy Grail. He was hooked by the mix of crime novel fiction and theological depth.
• “War in Heaven” is the best book to start out with, according to Dr. Sørina Higgins. Check out our Half Pint episode from last season on Williams.

02. “The Third Inkling

Q. What was it that drew you to Williams in particular, and what ultimately motivated you to write your substantial biography, The Third Inkling?

• As he entered into life as an academic at Manchester University, Mr. Lindop noticed that there were not any adequate biographies on the third Inkling.
• Sent by Carcanet Press to interview poet Anne Ridler, in the course of the interview, he learned that she had been taught by Charles Williams himself. As he spoke with her and learned more about her mentor, he realized how fascinating the man was, and that someone needed to write a biography about his life and legacy. He also understood that time was pressing, as most of Williams’s friends were older, and would soon pass away, along with his story.
• Mr. Lindop began taping interviews with people who were a part of Williams’s life, including friends, family, authors, playwrights; everyone he could uncover, Mr. Lindop tracked down and recorded interviews with.
• There were two main reasons that a sufficient biography had never been compiled. First was because of a paper shortage after WWII. The second was because of resistance from Charles Williams’s widow, who was reluctant to let secrets from his past be revealed to the public. While this might have protected his reputation, it also buried the author in obscurity. With no image of the author to connect the literature to, people found the books difficult to get through, and gave up.

Q. Are your interviews stored somewhere specific? Which other sources did you use to write this biography?

• Last he saw them years ago, Mr. Lindop was handing the recordings over to the Wade Center on little tapes. He assumes they’ll be converted to digital media files.
• Many of Williams’s private letters sit in the archives of the Bodleian Library in Oxford. There was a 50 year embargo on his personal correspondence, and it’s only just been lifted. It was chaotic, but a treasure trove of information.
• His Arthurian Commonplace Book also resides at the Bodleian. This was a journal Williams kept to scribble notes about Arthurian legends, particularly those about the Holy Grail.

My admiration for the staff work of the Omnipotence rises every day.

Charles Williams, Letter to C. S. Lewis

03. “His Life”

Q. Of course it would be unfair of me to ask you to summarize your entire book in a few minutes… but I’m going to do it anyway! Can you please give us a whistlestop tour through the life of Charles Williams?

• Charles Williams came from a poor family from northern London. He managed to get into University College London on a scholarship, but unfortunately had to drop out because though his school was paid for, his parents couldn’t afford to help him with his living expenses while he was busy studying.
• Williams managed to graduate while taking night classes, and secured a position at Oxford proofreading. Working his way up the ladder, he managed to become the Senior Editor at the Oxford University Press, running the World’s Classics Press, a large publishing entity. It was through this role that he was sent a copy of C. S. Lewis’s manuscript for “The Allegory of Love”, which Williams himself named.
• One of the things that made Charles Williams so bizarre was his involvement in occultism. He joined the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, a Rosicrucian occult group which was a mixture of Christian mysticism and rituals under the guidance of A. E. Waite.
• Williams also had an emotional love affair with a librarian at Oxford. Because of his belief in the sanctity of marriage, it never became a physical relationship, but there was massive emotional tension.
• During the outbreak of WWII, the OUP moved to join the main branch. All of the members of the Inklings were together, and Williams became a regular attending member. He was a prolific writer, authoring thrillers, sci-fi novels, theological texts, and even plays. Canterbury Cathedral put on a production of Charles Williams’s play the year after a production written by T. S. Elliot.
• Suddenly, right at the conclusion of WWII, Williams died quite unexpectedly in his 50s. As we’ve seen, little was done to preserve his works or his memory.

Q. What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about Williams?

• Williams led such a diverse and interesting life that there is likely always something that people are going to find distasteful. Non-Christians might not like his expression of theology, while Christians might be repulsed by his involvement in the occult.
• Ultimately, you just have to read his work and let it wash over you, not overanalyzing anything. Otherwise, it gets too difficult.

04. “Poetry”

Q. Up until now I’ve primarily dug into Williams’ novels, but you make it very clear in your book how highly you think of Williams’ poetry. What do you think makes it so good and can you please talk us through his career as a poet?

• The sound and rhythms of Williams’s poetry is wonderful and unique as the author himself. Mr. Lindop and John Matthews co-edited a collection of Charles William’s poetry, called “The Arthurian Poems of Charles Williams”.

Q. Who were some of the poets who influenced him?

• Williams pulled inspiration and stylistic choices from Gerard Manley Hopkins, a Victorian English poet whose work Williams helped to edit, and Anne Ridler.

Q. I recently heard from Dr. Sørina Higgins that more Arthurian poetry by Williams has been found at the Wade. Do you know anything about it and do you think there’s much more undiscovered material out there?

• There’s masses! Though not all of his early poetry was good, Williams was a prolific writer, and in 1930, his poetry began to take shape.

Q. What was Williams’s career like as a poet? Did he receive recognition in his lifetime?

• Like the suffering artist, he received very little recognition in his lifetime. Part of this has to do with being a late bloomer.
• Surprisingly, Lewis highly regarded Williams’s poetry, and even put together an essay to help drive readers towards his texts. He also published a book after his friend’s death called “Arthurian Torso”, which includes fragments of Williams’s prose, and explains how to read it.

05. “Other Works”

Q. We’ll dig into Wiliams’ novels later this month, but in addition to those and to his poetry, what else did Williams write?

• Some of his most notable work are his theological texts, including “The Descent of the Dove” and “He Came Down From Heaven”.
• Williams’s practice of Christianity was very practical, heavily focused on the sharing of others’ burdens. This is where his idea of “coinherence” comes from. It’s a term he invented to describe how humans are not separate individuals, but are linked together as one spiritual body. A consequence of coinherence is substitution, or taking on another’s suffering as their own.
• After the start of the War, Williams formed a group called the Companions of the Coinherence, who offered themselves as volunteers to take on the sufferings of others.
• St. Paul talks in his letter to the Colossians about using his suffering for the greater glory of God:

I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.

Colossians 1:24

• C. S. Lewis practiced coinherence when his wife Joy fell ill. As her bones began to deteriorate, he offered himself to God, asking that he take on her pain. Mysteriously and miraculously, her bones began to regrow, while his began to break down.

06. “The Oddest Inkling”

Q. I think the two biggest turn-offs for most people reading Williams are his strange relationships with women and his interest in the occult and you spend some time exploring these in your book. What can you say about those two subjects?

• Though occultism is never acceptable, Mr. Lindop suggests that Williams’s association with the Rosicrucians had more to do with his interest in Christian mysticism.
• The more problematic issue is his odd relationships with the opposite sex. Despite his conventionally unattractive appearance and thick Cockney accent, women were fascinated by him, and he developed several close friendships. These relationships were not sexual because of his belief in the sanctity of marriage, and the women themselves have said that they fully consented to his behavior; however, it was clear that the desire was there, and he definitely toed the line with impropriety.
• A stranger element of this is what Williams believed about what sexual tension did. He believed that the energy created by his remarks and games with these women could be used for spiritual purposes.
• All in all, Mr. Lindop is not arguing that Charles Williams was a saint. He was, rather, a complicated, brilliant, difficult man, who was admired by many, and hurt people as well, chiefly his own family. He was also, despite his many flaws, a great and interesting author and poet.

08. “Moving Forward”

Q. Are there any other books about Williams you’d recommend?

• Alice Mary Hadfield wrote a book called “Charles Williams: An Exploration of His Life and Work” that is worth a read. There’s also a collection of essays by Brian Horne called “Charles Williams: A Celebration”. For an understanding of Williams’s stranger practices and beliefs, check out “Esotericism & Narrative: The Occult Fiction of Charles Williams” by Aren Roukema, a leading scholar in esotericism in literature.

Q. If someone wanted to get started with Charles Williams, where would you recommend they begin and, in particular, where would you recommend they begin if they wanted to dip into his poetry?

• If you want to start reading some of his poetry, pick up a copy of “The Arthurian Poems of Charles Williams” that Mr. Lindop helped to assemble. You could also head over to the Apocryphile Press, where there is a compiled list of Williams’s works, along with that of others in his circle.
• As for novels, “War in Heaven” is a great place to start. Another would be “Many Dimensions”, a sci-fi book about the Philosopher’s Stone (no Harry Potter connections!).

Wrap Up

Concluding Thoughts

More Information

• To learn more about Grevil Lindop, read his blog at grevel.co.uk.

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