The Innocence of Father Brown

Gilbert Keith “G. K.” Chesterton (1874-1936) was a British writer, Christian theologian, art and literary critic, and philosopher. He was born on May 29, 1874, in Campden Hill, Kensington, London, to Marie Louise (née Grosjean) and Edward Chesterton. He was baptized as an Anglican as an infant, but when he was growing up, his family irregularly practiced Unitarianism. In 1892, he started attending University College London’s Slade School of Art, where he studied literature and art illustration but did not graduate. After leaving college, he worked for publisher George Redway and then for T. Fisher Unwin. Chesterton then began working as a journalist and a literary and art critic before writing as a journalist for the Daily News.

In 1900, he published his first book, a collection of poems and accompanying illustrations titled Greybeards At Play, before marrying Frances Blogg a year later. After marrying Blogg, he returned to Anglicanism. Chesterton also wrote two essay collections, The Defendant and Twelve Types, as well as multiple biographies. In 1904, he published his first novel, The Napoleon of Notting Hill. One year later, he published his first series of theological essays, Heretics. He wrote another theological book, Orthodoxy, in 1908. In 1910, he published his first Father Brown story “The Blue Cross,” having modeled the character after Catholic priest John O’Connor, before publishing his first Father Brown short story collection, The Innocence of Father Brown, in 1911. He then published the theological novel Manalive in 1912 and the play Magic in 1913. His nonfiction book A Short History of England was published in 1917.

In 1922, Chesterton converted to Roman Catholicism and published the book Eugenics and Other Evils. He then wrote a book of Christian apologetics, The Everlasting Man, and started his periodical G.K.’s Weekly in 1925. He went on to publish two other Father Brown collections, The Incredulity of Father Brown in 1926 and The Secret of Father Brown in 1927. He also continued writing short stories such as “The Crime of the Communist” (1934) and biographies, including his own autobiography in 1936, before his death on June 14, 1936. After his death, two works were published posthumously: the short story “The Angry Street—A Bad Dream” in 1947 and the essay collection The Common Man in 1950.