On the Place of Gilbert Chesterton in English Letters

Many begged Hilaire Belloc to write a full biography of G.K. Chesterton; he always declined. When he finally wrote this short book, he professed that it was but "notes of a friend"-not formal biography in any sense but a series of considerations on Chesterton's writing style, insights, and propensities. He writes: "My chief claim to know and interpret Chesterton is, of course, a permanent and active personal friendship, through which we were very close companions for more than 30 years and during nearly the whole of his literary activity."

Chesterton and Belloc were closely aligned in their thought on many topics, especially the evils of modern-day capitalism: "The group to which he and I belonged recognized that the main social event of our generation was the destruction of freedom through the universal growth of capitalist monopoly, and the ruin of economic independence in the mass of private citizens." Together they contributed enormously to the economic philosophy called distributism, which seeks the concrete, practical implementation of Catholic social doctrine.Speaking of Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism, he explains that his friend "approached the Catholic Church gradually but by a direct road. He first saw the city from afar off, then approached it with interest and at last entered. Few of the great conversions in our history have been so deliberate or so mature. It will be for posterity to judge the magnitude of the event. We are too near it to see it in scale." Belloc clearly saw the tremendous impact Chesterton's conversion would have on the rest of the twentieth century and beyond. Like C.S. Lewis, Chesterton was able to find fresh language and new insights with which to advance the claims of Christianity.As it has not been readily available for some time, Os Justi Press is pleased to make this short volume easily accessible again.