Gilbert K. Chesterton Biography

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, better known as G. K. Chesterton, was a prominent literary figure of the 20th century London. He was a highly versatile individual who was as respected as a writer as he was for being an orator and Christian apologist. His works covered a wide range of genres and he could write anything from poetry to drama, from biographies to crime novels, and about almost all imaginable topics. He was a religious man who was drawn closer to religion with age and eventually converted to Roman Catholicism. As a Christian, he wrote several apologies, the best known of which were ‘Orthodoxy’ and ‘The Everlasting Man’. He had a unique writing style characterized by the use of popular proverbs and allegories which he would twist according to his requirements, thus earning him the nickname ‘prince of paradox’. An outspoken man and a political thinker, he was apprehensive about both Progressivism and Conservatism. He never finished college and began his career as a manuscript reader for a publisher. Gradually he moved on to writing art criticisms and soon expanded his repertoire to include poetry, essays, articles and stories. He became well known as a writer of detective novels and as the creator of the fictional detective priest, Father Brown.