"Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know."
— Gilbert K. Chesterton
The critic, novelist and poet, Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), was born in
London, England. He studied at the Slade School of Art before starting to
write. Much of his work was in the form of articles for periodicals,
including his own publication which he took over from his brother in 1916
- originally named The New Witness, he renamed it The G.K. Weekly
in 1925 and edited it up until his death. He is best
known today for his 50 or so short stories about the seemingly benign Father
Brown (who uses his distinctive style of deduction to solve the seemingly
unsolvable - his cherubic face, thick glasses and air of outward confusion
disguising an amazing perspicacity,) which he wrote between 1911 and 1935.
Chesterton converted to Catholism in 1922, after which he devoted much of his
time to writing on religious topics.
According to those who knew him, he had an extraordinary mind. He could
quote entire chapters of Dickens and other authors from memory and proved on a
dare that he remembered the plots of all the 10,000 novels he had evaluated
while working as a publisher's reader. Several of his secretaries reported
that he was able to simultaneously dictate one essay while writing another by
hand on a different subject. He was able to connect ideas by tracing their
logical, philosophical and historical basis, while also projecting their
practical implications for human behavior - his writings are full of such
connections.
He maintained lifelong friendships with many including, to his credit, some of
those who were his antagonists in journalism, including George Bernard Shaw, H.G.
Wells and J.M. Barrie.
This quote & biography originally ran in an issue of BookBrowse's membership magazine. Full Membership Features & Benefits.
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