Chronology
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
1874-1936
| 1874 | (29 May) Born to Marie Louise (née Grojean) wife of Edward Chesterton, at 32 Sheffield Terrace, Campden Hill, London, W.8. |
| 1879 | Birth of Cecil Chesterton. Family moves to 11 Warwick Gardens. |
| 1887 | (January) Enters St. Paul’s School, Hammersmith, London. |
| c.1890 | Begins lifelong friendship with schoolmate Edmund Clerihew Bentley. |
| 1891-1893 | Debates and writes for The Debater. |
| 1892 | Contributes “The Song of Labour” to The Speaker. |
| 1892-1895 | Attends Slade School of Art. Hears lectures in English Literature in University College. |
| 1895-1901 | On publishers’ staff (Redway; then from 1895 T. Fisher Unwin). |
| 1895 | Reviews for The Ruskin Reader for Academy, publication 22 July. |
| 1899-1903 | Reviewing and writing long biographical critical essays (Carlyle, Tennyson, Thackeray). |
| 1900 | Greybeards at Play (comic verse) published by R. Brimley Johnson (October). The Wild Knight and Other Poems (Grant Richards; November). Meets Hillaire Belloc, gentle start of lifelong friendship (28 June). |
| 1901 | (28 June) Marries Frances Blogg after long courtship, visiting her in Bedford Park from 1896. Residence briefly in Edwardes Square, Kensington, then Overstrand Mansions, Battersea |
| 1901-1913 | Columnist for Daily News, some columns later essay-books. |
| 1901 | The Defendant (Brimley Johnson; December). Essays. |
| 1902 | Twelve Types (Arthur L. Humphries; October). Literary Essays. |
| 1903 | Robert Browning (Macmillan: May). Critical study. |
| 1903-1904 | Participates in Clarion controversy about religion. |
| 1904 |
Meets inspiration for Father Brown (Reverend John O’Connor, but in mid-1920’s Father Brown also resembles Reverend Vincent McNabb, O.P.) G.F. Watts (Duckworth; March. Also New York: E. P. Dutton). Critical study. The Napoleon of Notting Hill (John Lane; 22 March). Novel. |
| 1905-1936 | Bruce G. Ingram makes G.K. Chesterton weekly columnist (“Our Note-Book”) for Illustrated London News. Chesterton serving lifetime. |
| 1905 |
The Club of Queer Trades (Harper and Brothers; March). Linked short stories. Heretics (John Lane; 6 June). Linked essays, a few being reworked reviews. |
| 1906 |
Charles Dickens (Methuen; 30 June. Also New York: Harper). Contributes to sermons (10, 30 March) to series in St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, London, series published as Preachers from the Pew. |
| 1907-1909 | Vigorous contributor to controversies in New Age under Nietzschean A.R. Orage. |
| 1907-1910 | Introduces successive volumes of the works of Charles Dickens for the publishers Dent in their “Everyman’s Library” under the general Editorship of Ernest Rhys (10 in 1907, 6 1908, 4 1909, 2 1910, several of which must have coincided with his writing The Man Who Was Thursday and Orthodoxy. |
| 1907 |
Introduces George Haw, From Workhouse to Westminster: The Life Story of Will Crooks, MP (Cassell: March). Introduces The Book of Job (S. Wellwood: May, thus preceding the writing of Thursday very closely). The Man Who Was Thursday apparently published in pilot edition with tiny run to judge demand, one copy dated 1907 reported 1949, no extant copy now known (month unknown but probably December). |
| 1908 | The Man Who Was Thursday (Arrowsmith (Bristol) and Simpkin, Marshall (essentially wholesale distributors)
of London: February). 4000 copies printed, no new edition until September 1912. All Things Considered (Methuen; 10 September). Essays from Illustrated London News. Orthodoxy (John Lane; 25 September). 5,310 copies. Also New York: Lane. Counterpart to Heretics. Varied Types (New York: Dodd, Mead; September) Twelve Types plus seven other biographical essays reprinted from Daily News, etc. |
| 1909 |
George Bernard Shaw (Lane [London and New York]; 24 August). “The Later Phases” added 1935. |
| 1910 | The Ball and the Cross (Wells Gardner, Darton; 24 February. Novel. What’s Wrong With the World (Cassell; June). Alarms and Discursions (Methuen; 3 November). Daily News essays. William Blake (Duckworth; November). |
| 1911 |
Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens (Dent: February). The Everyman’s Library introductions. The Innocence of Father Brown (Cassell; July). Short Stories. The Ballad of the White Horse (Methuen; 31 August). Poem. |
| 1912 |
Manalive (Nelson; February). Novel. A Miscellany of Men (Methuen: 10 October). Daily News essays. |
| 1911-1912 | Verse, mostly ballads, contributed to Eye-Witness. |
| 1912 -1916 | Verse, including many songs without music, contributed to New Witness. |
| 1913 |
Leaves Daily News (February) and writes for Daily Herald (from April 1913 to September 1914). Cecil Chesterton editing New Witness inflames Marconi Scandal, tried (27 May) for criminal libel, fined £100. The Victorian Age in Literature (Williams and Norgate [Home University Library; February]. History and Criticism. Magic a Fantastic Comedy (Martin Secker; November). Play. |
| 1914 |
The Flying Inn (Methuen; 22 January 1914). Novel, including songs previously in New Witness. (first week of August) Outbreak of World War I. The Wisdom of Father Brown (Cassell; October). Short stories. (November) unconscious for many weeks probably from dropsy. Illustrated London News column suspended after 21 November until 22 May 1915. |
| 1915 |
Letters to an Old Garibaldian (Methuen; 7 January) but copies ready in December 1914 whence writing must have been before illness. Polemic. Poems (Burns and Oates: April). Collected verse, probably assembled by Frances Chesterton. Wine, Water and Song (Methuen; 6 August). Songs, almost all in The Flying Inn. The Crimes of England (Cecil Palmer and Hayward; November). Polemic, Part Historical. |
| 1916 | (October) Replaces brother Cecil (now in the army) as Editor of New Witness with consequent blizzard of articles. |
| 1917 |
A Short History of England (Chatto and Windus; 18 October). Cecil Chesterton marries Ada Jones while in the army. Utopia of Usurers (New York: Boni and Liveright; no UK publication). Essays from Daily Herald. |
| 1918 |
Visits Ireland (October-November) initially to encourage Irish enlistment in HM Armed Forces, debates there with Shaw, present in Ireland on similar errand. Death of Cecil Chesterton (6 December). |
| 1919 | Irish Impressions (Collins; 4 November). Slightly revised reports to New Witness sent from wartime Ireland and post-armistice, with some additional matter. Visits Palestine (December, back April 1920). |
| 1920 | The Superstition of Divorce (Chatto and Windus; 29 January). Essays, including New Witness series March-April
1918. Old King Cole (charity publication for Beaconsfield Convalescent Home:? Summer). Old rhyme rewritten successively in the manner of Tennyson, Yeats, Whitman, Browning, Swinburne. Chesterton in Supportive pageant as Old King Cole. The Uses of Diversity (Methuen; 26 October). Essays from Illustrated London News and New Witness. The New Jerusalem (Hodder and Stoughton; 19 November). Series in Daily Telegraph, August-September. |
| 1921 | Lecture tour in the United States. |
| 1922 |
Eugenics and Other Evils. (Cassell; February). What I Saw in America (Hodder and Stoughton; 1 September). Reports from New Witness. The Ballad of St. Barbara. (Cecil Palmer; October). Poems, some previously in New Witness. Reception in Roman Catholic Church, 30 July. |
| 1923 |
Francies versus Fads. (Methuen; 6 September). Essays from London Mercury, New Witness, Illustrated London News. End of New Witness (May). St. Francis of Assisi. (Hodder and Stoughton; 26 October). Hagiography. |
| 1924 | The End of the Roman Road (Classic Press; March). Essay. |
| 1925 |
The Superstitions of the Sceptic (Heffer and Sons [Cambridge]; 4 March). Controversy with G.G. Coulton). Editor of G.K.’s Weekly (serving from 21 March until death).
|
| 1926 |
The Incredulity of Father Brown (Cassell; June). Short stories.
|
| 1927 |
The Catholic Church and Conversion (Burns, Oates, and Washbourne; January). Theology. Culture and the Coming of Peril (University of London Press; October). Lecture, 28 June. The Judgement of Dr. Johnson (Sheed and Ward; October). Play. Robert Louis Stevenson (Hodder and Stoughton; 3 November). Critical study. |
| 1928 |
Generally Speaking (Methuen; 18 October). Essays from Illustrated London News. The Sword of Wood (Elkin Mathews and Marot; October). Short story. The Poet and the Lunatics (Cassell; July). Episodic novel. The Thing (Sheed and Ward; October). Theology Essays. |
| 1929 |
The Poet and the Lunatics (Cassell; July). Episodic novel. The Thing (Sheed and Ward; October). Theology Essays. |
| 1930 |
Four Faultless Felons (Cassell; August 1930). Loosely linked six-part stories with prologue and epilogue. The fourth story, “The Loyal Traitor,” has echoes of Thursday. The Resurrection of Rome (Hodder and Stoughton; 2 October). Essays from Illustrated London News. |
| 1931 | All is Grist (Methuen; 2 October). Essays from Illustrated London News. (May) Ends North-American lecture tour begun previous September. |
| 1932 | Chaucer (Faber and Faber; 11 April). Critical study. Sidelights on New London and Newer York (Sheed and Ward; May). Essays from several periodicals, well-linked. Christendom in Dublin (Sheed and Ward; November). Reports from Eucharistic Congress, June. |
| 1932-36 | Regular broadcasting for BBC, almost all published in Listener. |
| 1933 |
All I Survey (Methuen; 23 March). Essays from Illustrated London News. St. Thomas Aquinas (Hodder and Stoughton; 21 September). Theology. |
| 1934 | Avowals and Denials (Methuen; 8 November). Essays from Illustrated London News. |
| 1935 |
The Scandal of Father Brown (Cassell; March). Short stories. The Well and the Shallows (Sheed and Ward; September). Theology. The Way of the Cross (Hodder and Stoughton; 3 December). Chesterton commentary on interpretation of Stations of the Cross by the artist Frank Brangwyn. |
| 1936 |
As I Was Saying (Methuen; 11 June). Essays from Illustrated London News. Death of Gilbert Keith Chesterton (14 June). Autobiography (Hutchinson; 5 November). |
| 1937 | The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond (Cassell; March). Short stories. |
| 1938 | The Coloured Lands (Sheed and Ward; November). Juvenilia, verse, prose, drawings. |
Prepared by Sheridan Gilley, Ph.D., 2008.