Chesterton, G(ilbert) K(eith)

Chesterton, G(ilbert) K(eith) (1874-1936), English writer, born in London. Although originally a liberal in his philosophy, he later became a conservative. He formed a lasting friendship with the writer Hilaire Belloc, also a conservative, and the two men established a journal to expound their views. He also illustrated Belloc's novels. Despite his controversial views, Chesterton's brilliant, vigorous, and witty style made him extremely popular. He did not become a Roman Catholic until 1922, but nearly all his works are defences of Roman Catholicism and orthodoxy in general.

Among Chesterton's more important writings are theological studies, polemics, and volumes of poetry. Today he is perhaps most famous for his novels The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), a political fantasy which reflected his dislike of the modern, mechanized world and celebrated an earlier pre-industrialized world, and The Man Who Was Thursday (1908), a witty allegory, and for a series of detective stories relating the adventures of Father Brown, a mild-mannered Roman Catholic sleuth. He also wrote works of criticism on Dickens, Blake, Robert Browning, Chaucer, and George Bernard Shaw.