Chesterton, Gilbert Keith
Chesterton, Gilbert Keith (1874–1936). Chesterton and his friend Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953), with whom he collaborated, were the best-known catholic writers of Edwardian England—Shaw dubbed them ‘Chesterbelloc’—though Chesterton did not join the catholic church until 1922. Busy journalists, they engaged in public controversy, particularly with Shaw, Kipling, and Wells. Chesterton's best works are probably The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), The Club of Queer Trades (1905) (‘Major Brown, Major Brown, where does the jackal dwell?’), and The Man who was Thursday (1908), though his most popular books were the Father Brown detective stories from 1911. Chesterton's ‘cheese and good ale’ stance grows tedious at times, and the deep nostalgia which he shared with Belloc is perhaps best captured in the latter's poem ‘Ha'nacker Mill’.
J. A. Cannon
More From encyclopedia.com
NEARBY TERMS
Chesterton, Gilbert Keith
