Friendship, Community, and Book Dedications

John Hendrix's latest book brings to life the gift of friendship and community

I’d like to think my friend and colleague John Hendrix is best-known as the illustrator of Learning to Disagree. But he has a few other accolades to his name, including his most recent graphic novel, The Mythmakers. Released just two weeks ago, it has already sold out its first printing.

John’s latest book traces the real-life friendship of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, who were part of a group of writers of (mostly) Christian faculty at Oxford known as The Inklings. Lewis, Tolkien, and the other Inklings went on to produce an enormous amount of creative and imaginative content that continues to reach millions of people. Their collective achievement is stunning; as Lev Grossman notes in his New York Times review of The Mythmakers, Lewis and Tolkien are “two of the principal architects of the modern fantasy tradition.”

John dedicated The Mythmakers to me and our mutual friend and colleague, Abram Van Engen. I was stunned and grateful when he first shared the news with us. Book dedications are a tricky thing. I’ve done four of them, and I always wonder how they will land. I dedicated Learning to Disagree, to my wife, Caroline. I hesitated to tell her when the book momentarily topped Amazon’s made-up subcategory of books on “dysfunctional relationships.”

Of course, our closest relationships, while hopefully not dysfunctional, often blend encouragement and connection with vulnerability and risk. And that is also what makes community possible.

In a recent interview about The Mythmakers in St. Louis Magazine, Sarah Fenske highlights the importance of community to Lewis and Tolkien:

In Hendrix’s telling, the key to understanding the two men and their imaginary worlds isn’t just faith, but community. As they got to know each other, the two professors were thrilled to discover their shared interest in Norse mythology and bonded in a reading group Tolkien put together to read such tales in their original Old Norse. “Lewis loved how the readings rekindled his enchanted memories from before the war,” Hendrix writes. “Each man deeply needed the other, though they did not realize it yet. Tolkien was missing a creative confidant. He had been without a peer who could challenge and inspire him for some time. And Lewis needed a guide to get back home.”

And then Fenske turns to John’s dedication:

In that vein, Hendrix dedicates The Mythmakers to two colleagues, John Inazu and Abram Van Engen, both also writers with books out recently and both members of a group of WashU faculty members intent on living their Christian faith publicly. In their group, named The Carver Project, Hendrix sees echoes of Lewis and Tolkien’s famous literary discussion group, The Inklings. “These two friends are as close to The Inklings as I’ll ever get with my buddies at WashU,” he says.

It is of course a bit presumptuous for any group of friends to draw comparisons to the Inklings. And in fairness, the work that John, Abram, and I have produced is nowhere close in volume and influence to that of Lewis and Tolkien. But I think John’s core point is less ambitious and more genuine: our imaginations, insights, and creativity flourish in friendship and community. That has certainly been my own experience with John, Abram, and other friends. My own teaching and scholarship have deepened through the challenges and encouragement of those around me.

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For those of you in the St. Louis region, John, Abram, and I will be discussing our recent books together at The Church of St. Michael and St. George on the evening of November 19th. You can find more details here.