GK Chesterton (KC*SG) (29 May 1874- 14 June 1936)
GK Chesterton was an English philosopher, writer, art critic, journalist and apologetic. He is highly regarded for his contradictory writing style, exuberant personality and corpulent figure. He is a prolific journalist and author, well known for his apologetics, biographies, detective fiction, literary, social, and political commentary, and modern history. He has been referred to as the “prince of paradox” Born Gilbert Keith Chesterton on 29 May, 1874, in London, England, the son of Edward Chesterton, an estate agent, and Marie Louise, who is of Swiss French origin. Chesterton was baptised at the age of one month into the Church of England, though his family were irregular Unitarians.
He attended St Paul’s school then proceeded the Slade School of art, a department of the university college, London, a department of University College London, where he took classes in illustration and literature, but did not complete a degree in either subject. He married Frances Blogg in 1901; the marriage lasted the rest of his life. He credits his wife for his conversion back to Anglicanism. He later converted to Catholicism in 1922. Asked why he joined the Catholic church Chesterton replied, “To get rid of my sins.”
His writings were of three kinds. First, his social criticism, largely in his voluminous journalism. His second preoccupation was literary criticism, mostly of the works of other prominent writers like Charles Dickens, One of his most famous books, Heretics, critiques well-known figures like Rudyard Kipling. Lastly, he was more concerned about theology and religious matters.
Chesterton wrote around 80 books, several hundred poems, some 200 short stories, 4,000 essays (mostly newspaper columns), and several plays. He was a literary and social critic, playwright, novelist, Catholic theologian and apologist, debater, and mystery writer. He was a columnist for the Daily News, The Illustrated London News, and his own paper, G. K.’s Weekly; he also wrote articles for the Encyclopedia Britannica, including the entry on Charles Dickens and part of the entry on Humour in the 14th edition (1929). From 1931 until his death, Chesterton delivered over 40 talks per year for the BBC radio which were very popular at the time. After his death, an official of the BBC remarked that “in another year or so, he would have become the dominating voice from Broadcasting House”. In 1935, Chesterton was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote and talked about everything from history to architecture. He is, however, best remembered for his fiction and religious writings. He made quite compelling and often exciting arguments for Christianity that influenced many later thinkers, including C.S. Lewis.
Chesterton died of congestive heart failure on 14 June 1936, aged 62, at his home in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. His last words were a greeting of good morning spoken to his wife Frances. The sermon at Chesterton’s Requiem Mass in Westminster Cathedral, London, was delivered by Ronald Knox on 27 June 1936. Knox said, “All of this generation has grown up under Chesterton’s influence so completely that we do not even know when we are thinking Chesterton. Near the end of Chesterton’s life, Pope Pius XI invested him as Knight Commander with Star of the Papal Order of St. Gregory the Great (KC*SG).
One of his famous quote is “A man who has faith must be prepared not only to be a martyr, but to be a fool.”—Heretics. In 2012, a crater on the surface of Mercury was named Chesterton.
Notable books by Chesterton include: Father Brown stories, The Everlasting man, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, Orthodoxy, Heretics etc.