Authors

British · 1874–1936

G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton was a British author, journalist, philosopher, and apologist whose enormous output — including the Father Brown mystery stories, the novel The Man Who Was Thursday, and his controversial biography of St. Francis of Assisi — made him one of the most recognizable public intellectuals of the early twentieth century. He converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism in 1922. His paradoxical style — turning conventional wisdom upside down with cheerful ferocity — influenced C. S. Lewis, Jorge Luis Borges, and many others. He and George Bernard Shaw engaged in famous public debates for decades.