The Wisdom of Father Brown

G. K. Chesterton was an English author, theologian, broadcaster, and philosopher. Although Chesterton is most famous for his fiction, he wrote prodigiously on a wide range of philosophical, cultural, and religious subjects. Often engaging in friendly arguments with other great minds of the time, such as George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and Bertrand Russell, Chesterton also made a name for himself as a literary critic and regular broadcaster on BBC radio. Chesterton penned over two hundred short stories— many featuring his famous priest-detective Father Brown— and nearly one hundred books, including the fictional The Man Who Was Thursday, and his non-fiction apologist treatise The Everlasting Man. As one of the most prolific English writers at the turn of the century, Chesterton left a significant literary legacy and has been cited as an influence by Marshall McLuhan, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Mahatma Gandhi, and Neil Gaiman, who modeled the character Gilbert from his graphic novel The Sandman on Chesterton. G. K. Chesterton died of congestive heart failure at his home in 1936 at the age of sixty-two.