Who is G.K. Chesterton?

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer who lived from 1874 to 1936, and is considered by many to be one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century. The subject matter of his writing spans nearly every topic imaginable, from the dangers of big government, to the truth of the Catholic Faith, to the goodness of beer. Among the books penned by Chesterton are Orthodoxy, The Everlasting Man, What's Wrong with the World, Heretics, and The Outline of Sanity. He is also the author of a number of fictional works, the most famous of which is his Father Brown, detective series. Other of his fictional works include The Ball and the Cross, The Man Who was Thursday, and Man Alive. But that's not all! Chesterton was also a poet. Among the poems he wrote is The Ballad of the White Horse, an epic poem about the defense of England by King Alfred the Great, as well as Lepanto, about the battle of Lepanto, fought by Europe against the invading Muslims.

G.K. Chesterton has been called the Apostle of Common Sense. He was a defender of common things and the common man, of the family, and of the poor. He opposed both Big Government and Big Business as enemies of these. A convert to Catholicism, G.K. Chesterton defended the Catholic Church long before he entered it. For Chesterton, the Church was the one lasting beacon of sanity in a world torn by ideological fads. Although Chesterton wrote in the first part of the 20th century, his writing is timeless, and is as relevant today as it was over eighty years ago.