The Space Trilogy

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Out of the Silent Planet is a novel by C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien's friend and fellow Inkling. It is the first book of his 'Space Trilogy'.

The story shares a common genesis with Tolkien's unfinished The Lost Road. The two men had a conversation about the shortcomings of Science Fiction literature and Lewis remarked that "there is too little of what we really like in stories", suggesting they try their hand at the genre "as amateurs":[1]

We... meant each to write an excursionary 'Thriller': a Space-journey and a Time-journey (mine) each discovering Myth.
J.R.R. Tolkien[2]

Lewis' 'Space-journey' became Out of the Silent Planet and was published in 1938 by The Bodley Head. Lewis initially tried to interest Allen & Unwin in the work, but despite the positive review Tolkien gave the publishers they passed.

The protagonist, Elwin Ransom, is apparently modelled in part on Tolkien (as well as Lewis himself and other Inklings): he is a philologist at an Oxbridge university, fought in World War I and the Somme and his first name means "Elf-friend" in Anglo-Saxon. Tolkien played down this similarity on multiple occasions, admitting it only in that both were philologists.[2][3]

References