Click here to open a Print - Friendly PDF
Gilbert Keith Chesterton was, in a word, huge. Tall and weighing close to pounds, he once told a chauffeur who suggested he attempt to exit a car sideways, “I have no sideways.” But Chesterton loomed large in other ways as well. He commanded the attention of an enormous audience through his prolific production of newspaper columns, short stories, novels, plays, poetry, and non-fiction. He counted many of Britain’s leading lights among his friends and enemies. And he exerted a powerful influence on the next generation of British Christian writers, a group that included J.R.R. Tolkien, T.S. Eliot, Dorothy Sayers, and C.S. Lewis.
Nothing in Chesterton’s upbringing suggested such an important career. He was born to a conventionally liberal, middle-class family that fit comfortably into the secular culture of the late Victorian era. Within that culture, Chesterton later wrote in his wonderful Autobiography, “We might almost say that agnosticism was an established church.” His education, at the Slade School of Art, was even more resolutely anti-religious, or at least anti-Christian. A creative and restless mind such as Chesterton’s might h
G. K. Chesterton: A Biography
G. K. Chesterton is remembered as a brilliant creator of nonsense and satirical verse, author of the Father Brown stories and the innovative novel, The Man who was Thursday, and yet today he is not counted among the major English novelists and poets. However, this major new biography argues that Chesterton should be seen as the successor of the great Victorian prose writers, Carlyle, Arnold, Ruskin, and above all Newman. Chesterton's achievement as one of the great English literary critics has not hitherto been fully recognized, perhaps because his best literary criticism is of prose rather than poetry. Ian Ker remedies this neglect, paying particular attention to Chesterton's writings on the Victorians, especially Dickens. As a social and political thinker, Chesterton is contrasted here with contemporary intellectuals like Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells in his championing of democracy and the masses. Pre-eminently a controversialist, as revealed in his prolific journalistic output, he became a formidable apologist for Christianity and Catholicism, as well as a powerful satirist of anti-Catholicism. This full-length life of G. K. Chesterton is t
Chesterton at the time of his engagement, | |
| Born: | May 29, London, England1 |
|---|---|
| Died: | June 14, , age 62 Beaconsfield |
| Occupation(s): | Journalist, Novelist |
| Literary genre: | Fantasy, Christian apologetics, Catholic apologetics |
| Magnum opus: | The Everlasting Man, Orthodoxy |
| Influences: | Christianity, Catholicism, George MacDonald, William Blake |
| Influenced: | C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Karel Čapek, Ernest Hemingway, Agatha Christie, Ronald Knox, Anthony Burgess, E. F. Schumacher, Orson Welles, Dorothy Day, Franz Kafka, Brian McLaren, R. A. Lafferty, Philip Yancey, Terry Pratchett, and J K Rowling. |
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (May 29, – June 14, ) was an influential English writer of the early twentieth century. His prolific and diverse output included journalism, poetry, biography, Christian apologetics, fantasy, and detective fiction.
Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox."[1] He wrote in an off-hand, whimsical prose studded with startling formulations. For example: "Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their prope
Chesterton, Gilbert Keith
Writer, journalist, apologist, and illustrator; b. London, May 29, ; d. Beaconsfield, June 14, The Chestertons were of the middle class, "liberal" in politics and religion, and reasonably well to do. From their father, Edward, who "knew all his English literature backwards" and who "never made a vulgar success of all the thousand things he did so successfully," Gilbert and his brother Cecil () learned a love of literature. The Chestertons, in the noblest and most literal sense, were amateurs. From St. Paul's School, where he had been chairman of the junior debating club, and edited its journal (called, significantly, the Debater ), Chesterton
went () to the London Slade School of Art, and, somewhat later, to lectures in English literature at University College, London.
First Three Periods. Chesterton's career falls into four periods. Before his work was sporadic, intuitive, and romantic. Swayed by idealism, he rebelled against decadent fin de siècle pessimism by adopting a Whitmanian optimism. He had not yet learned to distinguish rationalism (which he continued to abhor) from reason (which he came to rely upon in all judgments less t
Biographies you may also like
Micheal jorden biography Fitness-Riegel zuckerarm · 15% Rabatt mit Gutschein.
Jacie robinson biography Jackie Robinson was a groundbreaking baseball player who made history as the first African American to break Major League Baseball's color barrier. He made his debut with .
Girl jesse james biography wikipedia Jesse James Keitel is the Famous Actress, Instagram Star, and Model, from New York. She has appeared in various movies in her career including, Miller & Son, Fluidity, Like Glass, Forever .
Daniela denby ashe biography of albert einstein actress. 46 years (United Kingdom). biography, photo, best movies and TV shows, news, birthday and age, Real name. Denby-Ashe was born in North West London on 9 August , the Missing: albert einstein.
Matty finochio biography for kids Canadian actor who has risen to fame for his roles in the fantasy-drama series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and the horror series Day of the Dead. He participated in school plays and .
Daniel kehlmann die vermessung der welt "Die Vermessung der Welt" ist das bisher erfolgreichste Werk des Schriftstellers Daniel Kehlmann. Es wurde veröffentlicht und war für lange Zeit Anführer der Spiegel .
Since when robbie nevil biography Since When Lyrics by Robbie Nevil from the Cocktail album- including song video, artist biography, translations and more: Here's a little song I wrote You might want to sing it note for .