The Life and Words of GK Chesterton Read Free Page B

other more closely through visits and letters.
     
    Oldershaw once said of Gilbert: “He did nothing for himself till we came down from Oxford and pushed him.” Such a push in 1899, three years into Gilbert and Frances’s engagement, resulted in Gilbert’s decision to leave Fisher Unwin and live only by his own pen.
     
    Gilbert himself, in true G. K. Chesterton spirit, ascribed his success in literature to someone other than himself. He claimed that it was Ernest Hodder Williams, a friend of his from University College London, who was to be credited with steering the young Gilbert onto the writing path. During their literary conversations after their joint English lectures, it was William who persuaded Chesterton that he could write. According to Chesterton, Williams did far more, however; he used his connections. Williams belonged to a publishing family. They ran the publishing house Hodder & Stoughton, which published a magazine called the Bookman. Williams supposedly gave Chesterton some books on art to review for the magazine, the first of which appeared as early as December 1899. Modern biographers, however, have come to doubt this story as neither the issue in question or any issues released close to that date contain any reviews under G. K. Chesterton’s name nor any anonymous reviews.
     
    In any case, Gilbert did start writing professionally in 1899. Mostly, he worked as a freelance journalist of sorts for a magazine called the Speaker, which had recently been taken over by a group of opinionated young liberals.

A household name

G. K. Chesterton made a name for himself writing for the Speaker, very much thanks to the Second Boer War (1899–1902). The United Kingdom was, as a whole, very much for the war, whereas Chesterton was not. As one American writer noted: “Chesterton was the one British writer, utterly unknown before, who built up a great reputation, and it was gained, not through nationalistic support, but through determined and persistent opposition to British policy.”
     
    By the end of 1900 Gilbert was already becoming significantly better known, and his articles in the Speaker were attracting quite a bit of attention. He had also managed to publish his first book: Greybeards at Play: Literature and Art for Old Gentlemen, Rhymes and Sketches. It was quite the curiosity: a book made up of three satirical poems, illustrated by the poet’s own drawings.
     
    By 1901 Gilbert’s work was being sought after by other liberal publications, and he was writing regular book reviews for the Daily News. It was the year that Queen Victoria died on January 22. Gilbert did not go out into the throngs of people to participate in the processions, but he was still deeply affected by the monarch’s death, staying in simply to avoid weeping in public.
     
    Gilbert and Frances’s long engagement also finally came to an end in 1901, after five years of waiting. They were wed on June 28 at the Kensington Parish Church. Gilbert’s cousin, Annie, remarked that the wedding reception was the one time in their lives that Gilbert and his brother Cecil did not argue. The newlyweds missed their honeymoon train because Gilbert demanded to stop on the way. He wanted to have a glass of milk in a shop where his mother used to take him and to buy a revolver. As a newlywed he needed a weapon, he said, to defend his new bride against all dangers. In reality, though, he loved weapons and always carried both a revolver and a sword-stick. They spent their honeymoon on the Norfolk Broads. Gilbert’s first letter written on their honeymoon begins: “I have a wife, a piece of string, a pencil and a knife: what more can any man want on a honeymoon?”
     
    Upon their return to the city, the newlyweds moved into Edward’s Square, but they lived there for only a few months before moving to Overstrand Mansions, where the rest of their London life was spent. Later in the year The Defendant, Gilbert’s first book of journalistic essays,