Heretics was copyrighted in 1905 by the John Lane Company. Thiselectronic text is derived from the twelfth (1919) edition published bythe John Lane Company of New York City and printed by the PlimptonPress of Norwood, Massachusetts. The text carefully follows that ofthe published edition (including British spelling).
Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London, England on the 29th ofMay, 1874. Though he considered himself a mere “rollickingjournalist,” he was actually a prolific and gifted writer in virtuallyevery area of literature. A man of strong opinions and enormouslytalented at defending them, his exuberant personality neverthelessallowed him to maintain warm friendships with people—such as GeorgeBernard Shaw and H. G. Wells—with whom he vehemently disagreed.
Chesterton had no difficulty standing up for what he believed. He wasone of the few journalists to oppose the Boer War. His 1922 “Eugenicsand Other Evils” attacked what was at that time the most progressive ofall ideas, the idea that the human race could and should breed asuperior version of itself. In the Nazi experience, historydemonstrated the wisdom of his once “reactionary” views.
His poetry runs the gamut from the comic 1908 “On Running After One’sHat” to dark and serious ballads. During the dark days of 1940, whenBritain stood virtually alone against the armed might of Nazi Germany,these lines from his 1911 Ballad of the White Horse were often quoted:
I tell you naught for your comfort,
Yea, naught for your desire,
Save that the sky grows darker yet
And the sea rises higher.
Though not written for a scholarly audience, his biographies of authorsand historical figures like Charles Dickens and St. Francis of Assisioften contain brilliant insights into their subjects. His Father Brownmystery stories, written between 1911 and 1936, are still being readand adapted for television.
His politics fitted with his deep distrust of concentrated wealth andpower of any sort. Along with his friend Hilaire Belloc and in bookslike the 1910 “What’s Wrong with the World” he advocated a view called“Distributionism” that was best summed up by his expression that everyman ought to be allowed to own “three acres and a cow.” Though not knownas a political thinker, his political influence has circled the world.Some see in him the father of the “small is beautiful” movement and anewspaper article by him is credited with provoking Gandhi to seek a“genuine” nationalism for India rather than one that imitated theBritish.
Heretics belongs to yet another area of literature at which Chestertonexcelled. A fun-loving and gregarious man, he was neverthelesstroubled in his adolescence by thoughts of suicide. In Christianity hefound the answers to the dilemmas and paradoxes he saw in life. Otherbooks in that same series include his 1908 Orthodoxy (written inresponse to attacks on this book) and his 1925 The Everlasting Man.Orthodoxy is also available as electronic text.
Chesterton died on the 14th of June, 1936 in Beaconsfield,Buckinghamshire, England. During his life he published 69 books and atleast another ten based on his writings have been published after hisdeath. Many of those books are still in print. Ignatius Press issystematically publishing his collected writings.