文档介绍：The Author
HERETICS
by Gilbert K. Chesterton
"To My Father"
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The Author
The Author
Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London, England on the 29th of
May, 1874. Though he considered himself a mere "rollicking journalist,"
he was actually a prolific and gifted writer in virtually every area of
literature. A man of strong opinions and enormously talented at
defending them, his exuberant personality nevertheless allowed him to
maintain warm friendships with people--such as e Bernard Shaw
and H. G. Wells--with whom he vehemently disagreed.
Chesterton had no difficulty standing up for what he believed. He was
one of the few journalists to oppose the Boer War. His 1922 "Eugenics and
Other Evils" attacked what was at that time the most progressive of all
ideas, the idea that the human race could and should breed a superior
version of itself. In the Nazi experience, history demonstrated the wisdom
of his once "reactionary" views.
His poetry runs the gamut from ic 1908 "On Running After
One's Hat" to dark and serious ballads. During the dark days of 1940,
when Britain stood virtually alone against the armed might of Nazi
Germany, these lines from his 1911 Ballad of the White Horse were often
quoted:
I tell you naught for fort, Yea, naught for your desire, Save
that the sky grows darker yet And the sea rises higher.
Though not written for a scholarly audience, his biographies of authors
and historical figures like Charles Dickens and St. Francis of Assisi often
contain brilliant insights into their subjects. His Father Brown mystery
stories, written between 1911 and 1936, are still being read and adapted
for television.
His politics fitted with his deep distrust of concentrated wealth and
power of any sort. Along with his friend Hilaire Belloc and in books like
the 1910 "What's Wrong with the World" he advocated a view called
"Distributionism" that was best summed up by his expression that every
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The Author
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