Owen Barfield, whom C.S.Lewis called the wisest and best of my unofficial teachers, was a country solicitor, scholar of language and philosophy, anthroposophist, and writer of imaginative fiction.This book introduces Barfield as a seminal thinker and philosopher, his too-little-known fiction, and his deeply compelling theatrical play, Orpheus. Knight examines three major themes running through Barfield's works: the importance of the imagination; the evolution of human consciousness; and how this evolution is revealed in the changing meanings of words.