The Life and Words of GK Chesterton Read Free Page A

to the devil than many school children today. In the spirit of play, he dabbled in spiritualist matters such as playing with Ouija boards. Nothing remotely spiritual ever came of it. Chesterton wrote:
     
    My father, who was present while my brother and I were playing the fool in this fashion, had a curiosity to see whether the oracle could answer a question about something that he knew and we did not. He therefore asked the maiden name of the wife of an uncle of mine in a distant country; a lady whom we of the younger generation had never known. With the lightning decision of infallibility, the spirit pen said, “Manning”. With equal decision my father said, “Nonsense”.

Chesterton’s early career

As if a continuation from his habitually spiritualist school days, Gilbert landed a job with a publishing house almost immediately upon leaving school. In September 1895 he started working for Redway’s, a publisher of occult literature, where it was his duty to read his way through the pile of unsolicited manuscripts and to send out review copies of recently published works. He was incredibly busy, but the work excited him. In the evenings, after a long day at Redway’s, he sat at home and wrote, polishing, amongst other things, a short story called “A Picture of Tuesday,” which came to be published in a new journal called Quatro. It was a large hardbound quarterly publication featuring principally the works of Slade alumni.
     
    After a year at Redway’s, Gilbert left to work for Fisher Unwin, a significantly more prestigious publishing house. There, he had the surprising fortune of being given a much more distinguished job by mere happenstance. Being the only person at the publishing house who knew any Latin, he was put to work on a book called Rome and the Empire. He was its all-round editor, choosing illustrations, correcting its notes, and working on the introduction and the text itself. Otherwise, his work at Fisher Unwin much more resembled his work at Redway’s.
     
    It was when he had just started his work at Fisher Unwin that Gilbert’s friend Oldershaw brought him to a debate held in the London suburb of Bedford Park in the home of the Blogg family. They were the wife and three daughters of a deceased diamond merchant, fallen from considerable wealth into near poverty. The daughters were very beautiful, all three of them, so young men flocked to the home. Oldershaw was there, no doubt, in large part to woo young Ethel, whom he later married. On this particular day in 1896, Gilbert sat down next to Frances Blogg and fell immediately in love. The feelings were mutual.
     
    Unfortunately, their families did not feel as strongly about the match as Gilbert and Frances did. Marie Chesterton had already picked out a suitable wife for her son: Annie Firmin, a practical and not too bookish young lady who was Gilbert’s cousin on his father’s side. Neither Annie nor Gilbert, although friends, had any romantic feelings towards the other.
     
    Mrs. Boggs was no less easily persuaded. The fact that Gilbert only earned 25 shillings per week, scarcely enough to provide for a wife, must have played a part in her skepticism, but she also felt that Gilbert was something of a “a self-opinionated scarecrow.” The scarecrow comment may have been related to Gilbert’s personal appearance. Just as during his schoolboy years, the 22-year-old Gilbert took very little care of himself. In fact, Mrs. Boggs turned to Lucian Oldershaw on one occasion to ask him to please convince Gilbert to at least try to improve his appearance somewhat. Gilbert responded to his friend that Francis loved him as he was and thus he would be a fool to change.
     
    The mothers did eventually give in, and Gilbert and Frances were engaged. Theirs was a long engagement, not uncommon in those days. Frances remained in her mother’s home, working as a secretary during the days, and Gilbert continued to work in publishing while they got to know each