Owen Barfield aspired to be a writer and poet from an early age but it was not until he retired from his career as a solicitor in 1959, that he was able to devote sufficient time and energy to his writing. Consequently most of his published work dates from the later part of his life, when his philosophical and literary output expanded and he found himself in demand in American universities as a lecturer on philosophy. He was a lifelong friend of C.S. Lewis, whom he met in his first term at Oxford in 1919. They were founder members of the Inklings, an informal literary group which also included J.R.R. Tolkien and later, Charles Williams. Unlike C.S. Lewis, he was an Anthroposophist, and the correspondence in particular reflects the large part that this philosophy played in his life. For further details see the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.