GILBERT

See also:

• KEITH
• KEITH, FRANCIS EDWARD JAMES (1696-1758)
• KEITH, GEORGE (c. 1639-1716)
• KEITH, GEORGE KEITH ELPHINSTONE, VISCOUNT (1746-1823)

KEITH

See also:

• CHESTERTON
• GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON (1874- )

CHESTERTON (1874- )  , English journalist and author, who came of a family of estate-agents, was born in London on the 29th of May 1874 . He was educated at St Paul's school, which he left in 1891 with the idea of studying art . But his natural bent was literary, and he devoted himself mainly to cultivating that means of expression, both in prose and verse; he did occasional reviewing, and had some experience in a publisher's office . In 'goo, having already produced a volume of clever poems, The Wild Knight, he definitely took to journalism as a career, and became a regular contributor of signed articles to the Liberal journals, the Speaker and Daily News . He established himself from the first as a writer with a distinct personality, combative to a swashbuckling degree, unconventional and dogmatic; and the republication of much of his work in a series of volumes (e.g . Twelve Types, Heretics, Orthodoxy), characterized by much acuteness of criticism, a pungent style, and the capacity of laying down the law with unflagging impetuosity and humour, enhanced his reputation . His powers as a writer are best shown in his studies of Browning (in the " English Men of Letters " series) and of Dickens; but these were only rather more ambitious essays among a medley of characteristic utterances, ranging from fiction (including The Napoleon of Notting-hill) to fugitive verse, and from artistic criticism to discussions of ethics and religion . The interest excited by his work and views was indicated and analysed in an anonymous volume (G . K . Chesterton: a Criticism) published in 1908 .