G. K. Chesterton

This is the 14th post in our Author of the Week series.



Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in 1874 in England. At a young age he became fascinated with the occult but he became an orthodox Christian once he grew older. He was a large man of 6 feet 4 inches and he weighed nearly 300 pounds. He also had an exceedingly bad memory often forgetting where he was going and ended up in places he did not mean to be.

But none of that kept him from being one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. He was extremely witty which made his books very popular and his personality was one that made him truly fun to be around. Throughout his career he wrote 80 books, hundreds of poems, 200 short stories, 400 essays and even a few plays.

Along with this literary writing he was also a columnist for the Daily News, the Illustrated London News, and for his own paper G.K's Weekly.

Among his fiction his most popular character is a detective named Father Brown who would only appear in his short stories and among his nonfiction Charles Dickens: A Critical Study has received the most widespread praise.

His humor continues to be well known today but along with his wit came a social commentary that would always catch people offguard. There was one such time when the Times asked several prominent writers of the time to write and essay on what was wrong with the world. To this Chesterton wrote

Dear Sirs,
I am.
Sincerely yours,
G.K. Chesterson

The short note was not only meant to be funny but to make a statement about the lack of humility and of fallen human nature.

Chesterton died in 1936 leaving behind an estate worth 28, 389 pounds sterling or the modern equivalent of 1.3 million pounds.

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