G.K. Chesterton(1874-1936)
- Writer
- Actor
Prolific English poet, novelist, essayist G (ilbert) K(eith) Chesterton
was born in London on 29 May 1874. He was traditional, extolling the
virtues of the 'little man', and the romantic, pre-modern past. He
rejected the experimental in art as well as life, and distrusted the
state and the modern world. His _Father Brown series of detective
novels center around a humble but clever Anglican Catholic priest;
Chesterton converted to Catholicism at the age of 48. He was considered
somewhat eccentric, idiosyncratic, and was fiercely opinionated.
George Bernard Shaw disliked his work, calling him "a freak of French nature", and
various men and women of letters disdained the comparative gaudiness of
his thought and his work, and his unfashionable political conservatism.
Nonetheless he was popular, and beloved by many. He died on 14 June
1936, the same year his autobiography was published.
