Hugo Dyson

Who was Hugo Dyson?

Henry Victor Dyson Dyson, generally known as Hugo Dyson and who signed his writings H. V. D. Dyson, was an English academic and a member of the Inklings literary group. He was a committed Christian, and together with J.R.R. Tolkien, he helped persuade C.S. Lewis to convert to Christianity.

Dyson taught English at the University of Reading from 1924 until obtaining a fellowship with Merton College, Oxford in 1945. He retired in 1963 but returned as emeritus fellow in 1969, teaching the newly introduced "modern" literature paper. His tutorials were memorable because many of the writers discussed had been personal friends of his.

Dyson was not a prolific writer, but the good quality and voluminous quantity of his lectures and general conversation had quite an effect on people. He much preferred talk at Inklings meetings to readings. He was also known to have a distaste for J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Dyson was not alone in his distaste for Tolkien's stories, and eventually Tolkien gave up reading from them to the group altogether. Actually, it seems from the letters of C.S. Lewis that Dyson was considered the most fun-loving of the Inklings, and Warren Lewis liked him best of all.