Gilbert K. Chesterton

He died of congestive heart failure in 1936.

He was born in London and was sent to St. Paul’s School. He was artistically inclined from a young age and also loved literature.

He attended the Slade School of Art with the aim of pursuing a career as an illustrator; he also took classes in literature. However, he did not graduate.

After quitting college he took up a job as a manuscript reader with the publisher Redway and T. Fisher Unwin in 1896. He worked there till 1902 and during this time he also started working as a freelance journalist and art critic.

His first collection of poems, ‘Greybeards At Play’ was published in 1900. It was followed by two literary biographies, ‘Robert Browning’ in 1903 and ‘Charles Dickens’ in 1906.

He began writing a weekly opinion column for the ‘Daily News’ in 1902 which was followed by a weekly column in ‘The Illustrated London News’ in 1905. He continued writing the column for the next 30 years.

His novel ‘The Napoleon of Notting Hill’ was published in 1904. The novel was set in future and presented an alternative reality of the author’s own period with no major changes to the technology or society. This novel is credited to have inspired Michael Collins to lead a movement for Irish Independence.

In 1908, his novel ‘The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare’ was published. It is often regarded as a metaphysical thriller. Like most of his novels, it contains elements of Christian allegory.

This prolific writer wrote over 80 books, 200 short stories and an astounding 4,000 essays during his lifetime. A devout Christian, he was very famous for his reasonable apologies and as a writer, he was best known for his detective stories based on the character, Father Brown.