Saturday, June 13, 2015

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

Chesterton (or "GKC") is commemorated in the Episcopal calendar today. Here is an appreciation of him from Kiefer's Bios (or more properly, James Kiefer's website “Biographical Sketches of Memorable Christians of the Past.”) The site is linked in the sidebar to the left as one of my online favorites, and I encourage you to make it one of yours.

Kiefer mentions several of GKC's books, most of which I have not read as of yet. But two that I have read are important to me, and I commend them to you:

Orthodoxy
The Ballad of the White Horse (a long poem about Alfred the Great)

It is fascinating to note that, as Kiefer says, GKC was good friends with H. G. Wells and Bernard Shaw, despite sharp philosophical differences with them. Our generation could learn much from their example.

Many of his books are freely available at Project Gutenberg (another of my favorite sites on the Net, linked in the sidebar). Drawing partly from Kiefer, I have compiled a short list of several that I will try to read in the next year. I encourage you to do likewise.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My favourite is 'The Everlasting Man', which apparently played a part in C.S Lewis' conversion too.