G. K. Chesterton
English writer and Christian apologist (1874–1936); created Father Brown and wrote Orthodoxy.
At a glance
Main ideas
Chesterton's fence, Distributism, Against eugenics …
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Heretics, Charles Dickens: A Critical Study, The Man Who Was Thursday …
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- Chesterton was an English writer and Christian apologist, known for his wit, his use of paradox and his defence of tradition.
- He wrote around 80 books, about 200 short stories and some 4,000 essays, mostly newspaper columns.
- He created the priest-detective Father Brown and wrote apologetics such as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man.
- Raised in the Church of England, he joined the Catholic Church in 1922.
- He faced accusations of antisemitism in his lifetime, and his fiction included caricatures of Jews.
Why it matters
- His paradoxical style made him a dominant figure in early 20th-century literature; his "fence" asks reformers to understand a rule before they remove it.
Key facts
- Born
- 29 May 1874, Campden Hill, Kensington, London1
- Died
- 14 Jun 1936, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, of congestive heart failure1
- Education
- St Paul's School; the Slade School of Art, without completing a degree1
- Married
- Frances Blogg, 19011
- Columns
- Weekly in The Daily News from 1902 and The Illustrated London News from 1905; later his own G. K.'s Weekly1
- Religion
- Received into the Catholic Church in 19221
- Honour
- Knight Commander with Star of the Papal Order of St. Gregory the Great, from Pope Pius XI1
Main ideas
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Chesterton's fence1
Do not remove a fence until you know why it was put up: reform should follow understanding.
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Distributism1
A third way against both unrestrained capitalism and socialism, spreading property and political power widely.
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Against eugenics1
In Eugenics and Other Evils he attacked plans to stop people deemed "mentally defective" from having children.
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Faith as the answer to a riddle2
Christianity answers natural human needs; its paradoxes are evidence for it.
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Paradox1
He made serious points by turning popular sayings and proverbs inside out.
Books to start with
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Connections
Links
Sources
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