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Gilbert Keith Chesterton
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G.K. Chesterton was born on Campden Hill, in Kensington, London on May 29, 1874. He was educated at St. Paul's School and the Slade School of Art. In 1901, he married Frances Blogg. They made their home in Beaconsfield, a borough of Buckinghamshire. They had no children.
Chesterton was one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote thousands of essays for the London newspapers on virtually every subject imaginable. He was the author of over one hundred books and wrote contributions for more than 200 more. His writings cover history, philosophy, literary criticism, political and social theories, and Christian apologetics. In addition, he wrote poetry, plays, novels, biographies and even popular detective fiction. (He was the creator of the well known priest-sleuth, Father Brown.)
In 1916 he took over the editorship of The New Witness, a weekly journal begun by his brother Cecil, who later died in World War I. Chesterton continued the paper, eventually changing the name to G.K.'s Weekly, until his own death. He also helped found, along with his fellow writer and friend, Hilaire Belloc, the Distributist movement. This broad economic program addressed Chesterton's belief that neither capitalism nor socialism were viable forms of economic theory in practice, as each resulted in the concentration of the vast majority of wealth in the hands of a few elites.
Chesterton was noted for his paradoxical style, his endless supply of aphorisms, his great wit, and his great size (he was a large man). Chesterton was as prophetic as he was profound, foreseeing such historical developments as the rise and fall of both Nazism and Communism, and the cultural chaos wrought by modernism. He was also one of the most beloved men of his time, admired affectionately by both his allies and opponents.