G.K. Chesterton was born on May 29, 1874 and died on June 14, 1936. It is the 150th anniversary of his birth - Happy Birthday!
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, prolific journalist and author, was well known for his apologetics, biographies, detective fiction (Father Brown), literary, social, and political commentary, and modern history. Possessing a keen wit, a comic genius delighting in paradox, and a gift for religious argument, he published nearly 100 books and over 4,000 newspaper columns and essays.
Chesterton was born in Campden Hill in Kensington, London. His father was Edward Chesterton, an estate agent, and his mother was Marie Louise, née Grosjean, of Swiss-French origin. Chesterton was baptised at the age of one month into the Church of England, though his family themselves were irregularly practising Unitarians. Chesterton took college classes in literature and art, but he did not complete a degree. He married Frances Blogg in 1901; the marriage lasted the rest of his life. He entered in full communion with the Catholic Church in 1922. The couple were unable to have children.
While attending art school in London in the mid-1890s when he was about twenty, Chesterton realized his artistic limitations and determined to pursue journalism. A few years later he was writing columns regularly for several newspapers, including the Daily News and the Illustrated London News, and by 1902 was widely recognized for his abilities as a political and social critic, and as a writer in general. During the first decade of the 20th century Chesterton's voluminous written output only increased, and included his first novel, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, and his classic work on the basics of Christian belief, Orthodoxy. Chesterton also met George Bernard Shaw and Hillaire Belloc during this period, men with whom he worked and debated for most of the rest of his life. He took over editorship of the The New Witness in the 1910s, and renamed it G.K.'s Weekly, using it as another vehicle for his articles and essays, and to introduce his Father Brown detective stories. Chesterton and his wife, Frances, visited the U.S. twice between 1920 and 1930, both times stopping in Chicago. His book, What I Saw in America (1922) contains his thoughts about his 1921 trip. Chesterton continued writing essays and articles, among them "The Everlasting Man" and "The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic." The former work helped convince C.S. Lewis of the sensibleness of Christianity.
A large man in later life, Chesterton was often seen on London's streets walking to and from his office, sporting a cape, swordstick, crumpled hat, and tiny glasses, talking with friends and colleagues. In the early 1930s, Chesterton began a series of popular BBC radio broadcasts addressing a variety of issues.
At an early age Chesterton ceased to accept the existence of a higher being, but later came to believe in a personal God and in the Christian faith. He eventually became a Roman Catholic, finding there the spiritual discipline and responsibility he believed were needed in an increasingly decadent world. In spite of his strong ties to the Catholic Church, Chesterton's writings spanned denominational lines with such apologetic works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man--writings that dealt with the core tenets of the Christian faith.
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." He is buried in Beaconsfield in the Catholic Cemetery. 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). The Chesterton Society has proposed that he be beatified.
Source: Wheatoncollege and Wikipedia
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