While we can’t interact directly with an Inkling today, the next best thing is to talk with someone who actually knew one. In this case it was with Owen Barfield’s grandson. Owen A. Barfield is not only trustee of his grandfather’s legacy, but is actively involved with keeping his work alive and well. Being fluent with both the life and ideas of Barfield, the first and last Inkling, Owen was a joy to converse with. For those interested in Barfield, Owen’s website is a treasure trove of ideas, history, and leads.
Radix: It’s so good to have the chance to speak with you about your grandfather, Owen Barfield. Just to get started, can you tell us a little bit about him?
OAB: Well, Owen Barfield very much lived his life in three stages; and each part was almost exactly thirty-three years. For the first third of his life he was a sort of poet, author, and imaginative thinker. For the middle part he was a lawyer and a family man. And for the last part he was a professor and teacher. My grandfather lived until he was ninety-nine years old, and he did not want to live to be a hundred.
As far as knowing him from a biographical point of view, Grandfather was just not that interested in his life being made public. And that’s typical for some people: they don’t like people talking about their lives or writing their biographies. Grandfather wasn’t interested in it either. What he was interested in was trying to teach; and that stuff, quite frankly, is mind-blowingly interesting. Here is a little story for you: when I was talking to the biographer Simon Blaxland-de Lange. who wrote on Grandfather, I told him that time and time again, when I asked him to tell me about his life, to tell me about all of his interests and the things he did, he would say, “It all started with a music and dance tour at Cornwall, when I was still at university.” And he wouldn’t say anything else about his life apart from that. Simon told me that he had exactly the same reaction; that Owen wouldn’t talk about his life and would only start at that first step. For Grandfather, that was where it all started. And if a person didn’t have an understanding of that, of the importance of music and dance, then, well, you would not be ready for the next step.
Radix: This puts in my mind a certain picture of Barfield that is different from what I’d expect. It’s neat though. If I might, I wonder if I could ask what your grandfather was like to be with? What was having a relationship with him like? How people relate to others is often telling.
OAB: When Grandfather passed away I was twenty-eight. Also, I was the only son of my parents and the only grandchild of grandfathers’, so we were a very small and close-knit family. So I knew him well. From an early age I remember regular family visits, but from the age of fourteen on I decided that I’d like to visit him by myself – teenagers wanting to be independent.
Radix: [Laughter]
OAB: But I just really liked seeing my grandfather. And we had a good relationship. I remember telling him about my life, the stuff happening at school, what I was doing, and he would respond in a grandfatherly way. I remember being in his home and if I told him about some place, he would take the globe down from the shelf so that we could look at just where the place was situated. He also had a fantastic memory. I think this was one of the reasons that he and Lewis had the kind of friendship that they did. They both remembered everything. When I would go over to visit him, I remember that he was always making literary references. And then he’d jump up from his chair and put his hands on the book he was referencing and find the page where such and such idea was from. Another thing, Grandfather didn’t like dust covers, so he took them all off. So to me, his books all looked the same, with those mucky brown covers. But when it came to where things were written inside the books, he knew just where to look.
Radix: What kind of relationships did he have with the females in his life?
OAB: Well, my mother said that some men get on well with women, and my grandfather was one of those men who liked women. Grandfather was a snappy dresser too; he dressed well and had a sense of detail. So female visitors that would come by and spend time at the house would get a fresh cut flower from the garden put into a vase on the table for them, just that touch of sensitivity to the female. But he was always positive towards women. He also had some strong female relationships. I will mention this as well: for Grandfather, these female relationships also had the element of being muse figures, if that makes sense. In a sense they were important in helping him generate a certain sort of output and a certain level of philosophy. I might even say that he needed that element in his life in order to work.
In a way, asking about how the feminine influenced Owen Barfield is like asking the obvious – for me, anyway. Even if we look at the anthroposophy aspect of his life, Sophia is the divine wisdom and he was just so absolutely immersed in this. It’s almost self evident, really.
Radix: Do you mind just telling us a bit about anthroposophy and your grandfather’s connection to it? I think it’s highly likely that even most Inkling acolytes know very little of this.
OAB: Well, I’ll start with a few things off the top of my head. Anthroposophy is generally understood to mean something along the lines of “the divine wisdom in man,” as a sort of literal translation. It was started by an Austrian thinker and clairvoyant called Rudolf Steiner. Though Steiner was responsible for a number of things that most don’t know are connected with him. The Waldorf Schools, for one; but also biodynamic agriculture and Camphill communities[i]. Steiner himself defined anthroposophy more in terms of a path for humanity to find its way back to the divine. And that’s the one I prefer. Now Grandfather’s connection to this is that in his early years he was developing his own philosophy. During that time, at age twenty-three, he was taken to a meeting where Steiner was speaking. After going to more meetings, he realized that Steiner was in a similar vein of philosophical thinking as himself, only Steiner went wider and deeper. So what Grandfather tried to do was to re-express what Steiner had said, but in an English voice, if you like. And the interesting crossover is that Steiner acknowledged that for his message to really get out there to a world audience, it needed an English interpretation of it. And that is what Owen Barfield did.
Radix: Your grandfather is known more for his nonfiction, but he also wrote fiction. A couple weeks back I read his fairy-tale, The Silver Trumpet. I was kind of taken by it, but there isn’t a lot of writing about that story or his others. Can you tell us a little about his fiction in general?
OAB: He wrote three novellas, of which some information is available. That’s actually where my story began with his work. But he did write one large novel in 1928, while he was in that first third part of his poetic life, called English People. Trouble was that he couldn’t find a publisher. It’s still unpublished, though it can be read online. However, if it had been published in his time his career as an author may have taken off, and the Barfield we know today might be different.
Radix: That is astounding that this hasn’t been published, because you would think that people would be exceedingly keen to read it. I heard Malcolm Guite talk about it, and from what I heard, it sounded quite prophetic.
OAB: Yes it is. What Grandfather did in English People was to introduce at the end a kind of fairy-tale: this is a kind of German technique called a Märchen. Grandfather very much believed in the power of fairy-tales. He actually does this in his other writing as well: he will have a piece of contemporary work and then will introduce a kind of fairy-tale in it. In English People, that fairy-tale, which is also a standalone work, is called The Rose on the Ash Heap, and it’s rich with symbolism. It also has some characters in it who represent people he had encountered in his life: one is C.S. Lewis, who is the philosopher in that story. Actually, Grandfather places Lewis into his literature often. So if a person wants to know more about the relationship between Barfield and Lewis, they could certainly look there.
Radix: I can’t say that I have heard anything about that.
OAB: No, and that’s because nobody really talks about it. I think people, in general, are either unaware, or they find my grandfather’s work difficult to get into. It could be fashion as well: if people aren’t talking about it, nobody wants to venture out and be the first because you’d have to start a whole new conversation. It’s easier to say what’s already been said, which is the normal state of fans. I suppose it’s difficult to be original.
Radix: What would you suggest is the best place to start reading Barfield?
OAB: When I asked my grandfather, at age seventeen, that question he said to start at Saving the Appearances. I hear the same thing from other people as well: that this book most succinctly speaks to his theory in words that can be understood. But it also depends on the individual. I like his very first book, History and English Words. Some people find the second book, Poetic Diction, which was dedicated to Lewis, very important as well. For some it’s nearly sacred. And it is an important book. It shifted Tolkien’s mindset after he read it. But then there are a lot of people who don’t understand it, so it depends on the individual. There are so many ways to get into his thinking. Worlds Apart is another of his books that some appreciate, professors for instance. I think they like it because of the way that he sets out arguments in it. So, to answer your question, it depends on where you are at. Though I will say this: Grandfather always said the same thing, time and time again, only in different words. He never changed his position. He wasn’t like Lewis. who shifted throughout his life. Grandfather always stayed consistent.
Radix: Can you speak a bit to some of the differences between your grandfather and Lewis?
OAB: Well, there are huge differences. One thing that stood out to me was that the most important person in Barfield’s life wasn’t Cecil Harwood or others, but Lewis. And actually, that Grandfather was friends with Lewis is the reason that you are talking to me today, right? There are many anthroposophists who have done really fantastic work, but you are not asking me about those people. You are asking me about Barfield because he was an Inkling, and because of C.S. Lewis. I would say that Grandfather had the foresight to know that being part of the C.S. Lewis world would allow other people to come to his own work. Probably you know that Grandfather, up until the early 1980s, was the literary trustee and executor for C.S. Lewis. So Grandfather was responsible for Lewis’s work. But then he handed it over to the Gresham brothers and to make a long story short, they quite successfully commercialized that work and made it even more popular. I think they cut out the importance of Barfield in their narrative and made him sound much closer aligned to Tolkien – which did add to Lewis’s popularity. Either way, Barfield being linked to Lewis has done some to increase awareness of the name Owen Barfield.
Now, to the differences. I would say that Lewis was a contemporary author writing for a contemporary world. And because the 1940s and 50s was a tough time, people having just gone through the war, Lewis had great appeal. Here is what I would say though. Where Lewis was in the last century, he is still ahead of where many people are at now, in terms of Christian understanding, and that makes Lewis popular still. However, I would say that our society is now moving ahead of that time. That is where Grandfather’s work is speaking to. This means that Grandfather’s work resonates a good deal more than it did previously.
Radix: Interesting. It does seem like Barfield’s name is popping up more frequently. I just recently saw a newish book from Michael Vincent Di Fuccia, Owen Barfield: Philosophy, Poetry, and Theology. Then there are the journal articles and other pieces.
OAB: I would say that Grandfather always knew he was writing for a future audience. I remember when I was about fifteen and helping him clean up his house (he was doing a downsizing), and he sat down in his chair and said, “it will be fifty years until my work is understood.” At the time I didn’t know what he was talking about, but the statement stuck with me. It was 1985, and that meant he was speaking of about 2035. That’s the kind of timescale that my grandfather was talking about.
But just to go back to some other differences that Grandfather and Lewis had, I have a few more to mention. One was that Lewis thought of God or the divine more in terms of the transcendent, whereas Grandfather thought more in terms of the imminent. Grandfather thought that the divine was much closer to us, surrounded us, came from within us. Lewis had more of the idea that God was over and outside us. This has connections to the way they both differed in their views of imagination. For example, while Lewis felt that the imagination was a tool to be exercised and applied, Grandfather thought it was much more than that. For him it was a kind of almost divine spiritual path of knowing, so he took it to a really high level. His anecdote was actually this: for Lewis, the imagination was a kind of mistress that he would put on a pedestal and admire at a distance; whereas for Grandfather that female figure was a thing he wanted to embrace, to marry, to become one with. I think this is fairly illustrative of the difference that these two had. In general, the imagination for Grandfather was a way of discovering truth. Grandfather went so far as to say that her – that is, imagination’s – cooperation was essential for the survival of humanity.
Radix: Can you tell us a little more about the connection between Barfield and Maud Douie, who would become his wife?
OAB: Yes. And there are some interesting connections between Maud and the other Inklings too. But just to start, Maud was fourteen years older than grandfather, which was even more unusual then than it would be now, and for a number of reasons. First, because WW I had created a dearth of men in Britain, it was men who could be choosy. To make the story more interesting, it wasn’t as if Maud and Owen were well matched. She was not an easy character to get along with, and they never saw eye to eye on a lot of things. Plus, the age difference. However, Maud was kind of like a patron to Barfield, and to Lewis to some extent. And she was the one who financed Grandfather’s life to some degree. It’s not easy to be a poet in your twenties! So Grandfather was able to be a poet in the early years, whereas Lewis had to get a job at the university.
As for Maud herself, in the First World War she held the highest-ranking title for a female commoner to have in the Royal Navy. During those times, this was no small thing. Also, she was able to be in that position because she was previously married. Later she had her marriage annulled – another quite scandalous thing to do. So this was yet another thing that made Grandfather’s choice to marry Maud unique. That, along with his parents being against the marriage, made the whole thing a lot to confront during those times. So he was really stepping out of his comfort zone. However, both were interested in dancing. She was a professional dancer and grandfather had considered being one earlier in life.
Radix: Speaking of dancing, one of the Barfield children, Lucy, was a dancer in earlier life. Can you tell us about her?
OAB: You probably know too that not only was Lucy a godchild of Lewis, but that he also dedicated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to her. To Grandfather, Lucy was muse-like. He held her in very high esteem. Not just because of her suffering with multiple sclerosis, which was a great weight for Grandfather, but because of her spirituality. It was actually Lucy who brought him to Christian baptism.
In terms of Grandfather and how he thought about women, there are a few more things. First, his mother was an active suffragette. Further, his parents had two daughters and two sons, but their will left everything to the two daughters. This, again, was very scandalous for the times. So Grandfather definitely experienced different and more unconventional circumstances than most did, and acted less commonly as well – especially in terms of his marriage.
The Lewis connection between Barfield and Maud is interesting for a number of reasons too. Okay, so as you know, before Lewis converted he was an atheist. Despite this, when Lewis spent many of his weekends at the Barfield residence in London he went to church with Maud.
But Lewis was always a very important person for Grandfather – even after the “Great War.”[ii] We talked previously about the word interdependence, and I think Grandfather had some of that with Lewis. I think Lewis was even a second kind of muse for him. Grandfather always said that he only had one audience, one person he was speaking to, and that was Lewis. Even after Lewis died, I think Grandfather was still writing for him.
Radix: Wow. That certainly speaks to the strength of the connection. I would hope that people who don’t know about Barfield would begin to pick him up. Thank you for giving us some useful thoughts and perspectives – and stories! – about your grandfather. Would you like to leave us with a concluding thought?
OAB: There are so many things to say, especially because we live in increasingly perilous times. Here are a few I will offer though. There are a lot of people who are telling the truth, people like Grandfather. For various reasons, people aren’t reading them. I think Grandfather would tell us to start reading! And read things that are meaningful. This, in part, means reading more carefully. We have heard of the Slow Movement that originated in cooking, but moved to other areas of life; well, I think we need to be slow readers. And I suspect that nearly all of us know and deeply recognize the need for that, right? But we also need to increase our discernment. We need to know which things in society should be pushed against. This takes proper discernment. I am actually hopeful when I see that some of our younger people are having an increasing appreciation for things spiritual; that they are kicking back against materialism. This increase in awareness for the importance of the spiritual is a very good thing. Grandfather talked about this: he called it the evolution of consciousness. What the future of humanity depends on is that we are able to discern, to recognize and increase in the ability to identify and relate to the Christ impulse, and to the Christian consciousness. That’s what we need.
[i] Camphill communities are residential communities and schools that provide support for the education, employment, and daily lives of adults and children with developmental disabilities, mental health problems, or other special needs.
[ii] The ‘Great War’ is C.S. Lewis’s and Owen Barfield’s most significant philosophical debate, defining their life-long views on the roles of reason and the imagination in finding truth. It spanned several years of conversations, letters and treatises in the 1920s.