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Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Maisie Ward's biography of Gilbert Keith Chesterton has long been a cornerstone in Chesterton studies, as well as in the publishing house she and her husband, Frank Sheed, founded in 1926. Originally published in 1942, just six years after Chesterton's untimely death, this book combines Ward's unique perspective as the author's friend and publisher with an examination of his personal correspondence and interviews with his closest friends and family. Here are Chesterton's childhood and school days, the friendship and foolery of youth, his early theological development, high spirited love letters, the variety and richness of his travel and life abroad, his lectures, his writings, and his indominable spirit. A Sheed & Ward Classic, this re-release of Ward's definitive biography is sure to delight existing 'Chestertonians' and introduce a new generation to one of Catholicism's brightest lights. From the new introduction by Andrew Greeley: 'This book had a decisive impact on me and on my life when I read it at the age of sixteen and not merely because my fictional detective Blackie Ryan is an American cousin of GKC's Father Brown. Ms. Ward's biography introduced me not only to a world of literature of which I had been unaware, but to a perspective on literature and life which was enormously attractive because it confirmed many of the insights, instincts, inclinations, biases, and loves which were knocking around in my adolescent skull. I have been a Chestertonian all my life in part because I had been one without knowing it even before I read Ms. Ward's biography.'"
600 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1944
33 people are currently reading
147 people want to read
About the author
Maisie Ward
66 books8 followersMary Josephine "Maisie" Ward, a descendant of one of Britain's distinguished Catholic families, was a writer, publisher, and speaker.
Ward was born in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight on 4 January 1889, the eldest of the five children of Wilfrid Philip Ward and the novelist Josephine Mary Hope-Scott Ward. On her mother's side she was descended from Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 14th Duke of Norfolk and on her father's side from William George Ward, a prominent member of the Oxford Movement. All four of her grandparents were converts to Roman Catholicism.
She spent her childhood at first on the Isle of Wight, then Eastbourne, and finally in Dorking, before being sent off to board at St Mary's School, Cambridge. Here she was influenced by the preaching of Robert Hugh Benson and inspired by Mary Ward who had founded the order of nuns who ran the school.
Famous in her day as one of the names behind the imprint Sheed & Ward and as a forceful public lecturer in the Catholic Evidence Guild, her reputation has dimmed in subsequent decades. That is an ironic development given that she and her husband were ahead of their time in so many ways, foreshadowing most of what was good about the Second Vatican Council.
Maisie Ward hailed from genteel Victorian blue blood, but she literally earned her own stripes, first as a World War I nurse and then as a writer. She could claim author's rights to the first and only authorized biography of friend G.K. Chesterton – a book which, to this day, remains as galvanizing on its subject as is Chesterton’s own on St. Thomas Aquinas. And she also wrote widely in other areas, including New Testament scholarship, spirituality, and substantive biographies of Newman, her own father, and Robert Browning. Also falling under her pen's purview were the stories of countless saints and lesser notables, among them her personal friend, the accomplished writer and mystic Caryll Houselander (another wrongly overlooked voice).
In 1926 she and her husband, Frank Sheed, moved to London and founded Sheed & Ward. Words were the couple’s stock in trade. The amount and quality of what they wrote, spoke, translated and edited are a tribute to the contagious enthusiasm born of their felicitous pairing.[5] The couple have sometimes been cited as a modern Catholic example of street preaching. Sheed himself wrote a posthumous tribute to his wife under the title The Instructed Heart.
Ward was born in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight on 4 January 1889, the eldest of the five children of Wilfrid Philip Ward and the novelist Josephine Mary Hope-Scott Ward. On her mother's side she was descended from Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 14th Duke of Norfolk and on her father's side from William George Ward, a prominent member of the Oxford Movement. All four of her grandparents were converts to Roman Catholicism.
She spent her childhood at first on the Isle of Wight, then Eastbourne, and finally in Dorking, before being sent off to board at St Mary's School, Cambridge. Here she was influenced by the preaching of Robert Hugh Benson and inspired by Mary Ward who had founded the order of nuns who ran the school.
Famous in her day as one of the names behind the imprint Sheed & Ward and as a forceful public lecturer in the Catholic Evidence Guild, her reputation has dimmed in subsequent decades. That is an ironic development given that she and her husband were ahead of their time in so many ways, foreshadowing most of what was good about the Second Vatican Council.
Maisie Ward hailed from genteel Victorian blue blood, but she literally earned her own stripes, first as a World War I nurse and then as a writer. She could claim author's rights to the first and only authorized biography of friend G.K. Chesterton – a book which, to this day, remains as galvanizing on its subject as is Chesterton’s own on St. Thomas Aquinas. And she also wrote widely in other areas, including New Testament scholarship, spirituality, and substantive biographies of Newman, her own father, and Robert Browning. Also falling under her pen's purview were the stories of countless saints and lesser notables, among them her personal friend, the accomplished writer and mystic Caryll Houselander (another wrongly overlooked voice).
In 1926 she and her husband, Frank Sheed, moved to London and founded Sheed & Ward. Words were the couple’s stock in trade. The amount and quality of what they wrote, spoke, translated and edited are a tribute to the contagious enthusiasm born of their felicitous pairing.[5] The couple have sometimes been cited as a modern Catholic example of street preaching. Sheed himself wrote a posthumous tribute to his wife under the title The Instructed Heart.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 16, 2015
I don't even know what sort of search I was doing when I stumbled across this on my Kindle. Maisie Ward was a personal friend of the Chestertons and, so, superbly placed to write this biography only six years after G.K. died. Chock-a-block full of fascinating interviews, excerpts from obscure sources (like early school essays), and family history, this book is written so accessibly that I just dove in and haven't looked up yet.
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UPDATE
I don't know why anyone would bother to read another biography of Chesterton (except for Chesterton's autobiography — Ward quotes it and points out that her book is a companion volume at best). I know there are others that are newer but this is so enjoyable and informative that I really am getting a good feel for G.K.
Chapters like that on Bernard Shaw (which was read by Bernard Shaw before the book went to print) are simply priceless for insights into both G.B.S. and G.K.C. I especially loved the fact that Chesterton wrote a book on Shaw, which Shaw reviewed (not too favorably) and then wrote Chesterton a letter chiding him for wasting his time on writing a book about him ... when what Shaw wanted from him was a play! I was completely unprepared for the amount of understanding and affection in the exchange of letters shared in that chapter.
=====
UPDATE
I don't know why anyone would bother to read another biography of Chesterton (except for Chesterton's autobiography — Ward quotes it and points out that her book is a companion volume at best). I know there are others that are newer but this is so enjoyable and informative that I really am getting a good feel for G.K.
Chapters like that on Bernard Shaw (which was read by Bernard Shaw before the book went to print) are simply priceless for insights into both G.B.S. and G.K.C. I especially loved the fact that Chesterton wrote a book on Shaw, which Shaw reviewed (not too favorably) and then wrote Chesterton a letter chiding him for wasting his time on writing a book about him ... when what Shaw wanted from him was a play! I was completely unprepared for the amount of understanding and affection in the exchange of letters shared in that chapter.
August 24, 2009
Those of you who enjoy trying to think closer to the man and his ideas will rejoice with me as I found this surprise in the bargain section of an old bookshop in Carlton who knew nothing of its true value . I went travelling across the universe after a very short trip on the tram to get there . Beats fossicking for gold!
April 22, 2010
I LOVE GKC
July 21, 2019
Hagiography? Yes, probably. But still a fascinating account of a life lived to the full. It makes me want to go away and re-read or read lots of others of GKC's books, and the books of the authors he loved.
January 16, 2017
A must read for a lover of Chesterton. This is written by a friend of his just a few years after his death.
November 25, 2021
GK Chesterton was a mountain of a man--both in physical stature and in intellectual ability. "Chesterton was one of the deepest thinkers who ever existed; he was deep because he was right; and he could not help being right; but he could not help being modest and charitable, so he left it to those who could understand him to know that he was right, and deep; to the others, he apologized for being right, and he made up for it by being witty."
This description of GKC by Cyril Clemens may also summarize the book. Absent-minded, good-natured, optimistic, and a friend to his political opponents, Chesterton knows no comparison in history, save perhaps with Dr. Johnson.
I've enjoyed my favorite author's writings since first reading 'Orthodoxy' over twenty years ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed this biography by a friend of the Chesterton family. It inspired me to go read the many GKC books I haven't read, and to re-read many that I have.
Chesterton, along with Hilaire Belloc (together the 'Chesterbelloc'), was the leading Distributist of the time, the unfortunately named economic system offering an alternative to the reigning Capitalism in the West and Socialism in the East. We would do well to dust off their writings and learn that we do not have only two choices.
Most of all, the life of GKC can teach us that we can disagree vehemently with people without attributing to them evil motives--a lesson desperately needed in twenty-first century America. George Bernard Shaw and HG Wells, both Fabians, were dear friends to both Chesterton and Belloc throughout the decades filled with their public disagreements and debates. The letters between them are some of the highlights of this excellent biography.
If you are already a Chestertonian, this book is a logical next step in your journey. If not, start with his own books: Orthodoxy, The Man Who was Thursday, What's Wrong with the World, The Everlasting Man, Father Brown, Outline of Sanity, and Manalive would be good starts.
Don't just sit there. Read GKC, already.
This description of GKC by Cyril Clemens may also summarize the book. Absent-minded, good-natured, optimistic, and a friend to his political opponents, Chesterton knows no comparison in history, save perhaps with Dr. Johnson.
I've enjoyed my favorite author's writings since first reading 'Orthodoxy' over twenty years ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed this biography by a friend of the Chesterton family. It inspired me to go read the many GKC books I haven't read, and to re-read many that I have.
Chesterton, along with Hilaire Belloc (together the 'Chesterbelloc'), was the leading Distributist of the time, the unfortunately named economic system offering an alternative to the reigning Capitalism in the West and Socialism in the East. We would do well to dust off their writings and learn that we do not have only two choices.
Most of all, the life of GKC can teach us that we can disagree vehemently with people without attributing to them evil motives--a lesson desperately needed in twenty-first century America. George Bernard Shaw and HG Wells, both Fabians, were dear friends to both Chesterton and Belloc throughout the decades filled with their public disagreements and debates. The letters between them are some of the highlights of this excellent biography.
If you are already a Chestertonian, this book is a logical next step in your journey. If not, start with his own books: Orthodoxy, The Man Who was Thursday, What's Wrong with the World, The Everlasting Man, Father Brown, Outline of Sanity, and Manalive would be good starts.
Don't just sit there. Read GKC, already.
August 27, 2021
Second half, reread.
I read this years ago when I first became a fan of GKC. I reread the first half several years ago and just finished the second half.
Ward was the sister of Chesterton's publisher. She was friends with Mr. and Mrs. Chesterton and was asked to write this biography by Mrs. Chesterton after the death of GKC. She was given full access to his papers.
The second half of his life was dominated by his political life and his conversion to Catholicism. Ward is good on his political life. Hillarie Belloc and his brother Cecil convinced GKC to publish and write for a weekly newspaper which pushed the idea of distributism, an odd combination of anti-monopoly, anti-Government nannyism, and pro-religious small community society.
Ward regrets the time spent by GKC on this futile exercise. Without flat out admitting it, she illustrates how the newspaper veered into crude anti-Semitism and unsupported conspiracy mongering. She tries to distance GKC from these issues.
Ward came from am prominent Anglo-Catholic family. She was a devout Catholic. Her coverage of GKC's conversion is exhaustive. If you admire him as a Catholic, I guess it is interesting. If you admire him as a witty and interesting writer, it is a bit much. We also get the details of his wife's conversion.
Her coverage of his trips to America, Ireland and Poland are spotty and primarily retreads of his books on those trips and newspaper clippings.
The first half of this book is more interesting than the second half.
I read this years ago when I first became a fan of GKC. I reread the first half several years ago and just finished the second half.
Ward was the sister of Chesterton's publisher. She was friends with Mr. and Mrs. Chesterton and was asked to write this biography by Mrs. Chesterton after the death of GKC. She was given full access to his papers.
The second half of his life was dominated by his political life and his conversion to Catholicism. Ward is good on his political life. Hillarie Belloc and his brother Cecil convinced GKC to publish and write for a weekly newspaper which pushed the idea of distributism, an odd combination of anti-monopoly, anti-Government nannyism, and pro-religious small community society.
Ward regrets the time spent by GKC on this futile exercise. Without flat out admitting it, she illustrates how the newspaper veered into crude anti-Semitism and unsupported conspiracy mongering. She tries to distance GKC from these issues.
Ward came from am prominent Anglo-Catholic family. She was a devout Catholic. Her coverage of GKC's conversion is exhaustive. If you admire him as a Catholic, I guess it is interesting. If you admire him as a witty and interesting writer, it is a bit much. We also get the details of his wife's conversion.
Her coverage of his trips to America, Ireland and Poland are spotty and primarily retreads of his books on those trips and newspaper clippings.
The first half of this book is more interesting than the second half.
September 8, 2022
This book was a bit of a plod for me at times. The assumption of knowledge of events and personalities from the United Kingdom in the early part of the 20th century was probably not unreasonable in 1943 when this book was written. My ignorance required a bit of outside reading to make intelligent progress. Surprisingly, I was interested in this biography more and more as it progressed. Usually, I find that biographies are very interesting when talking about someone's childhood or youth but more bland when going through the adult years. G K Chesterton never failed to be fascinating and interesting; perhaps because he never ceased being like the little children he so loved to play with. This book has been a good appetizer; it has made me eager for more Chesterton.
October 4, 2022
Maisie Ward’s account of this truly gigantic figure is phenomenal. Unlike many biographies that simply give information and maybe break down currents of the person’s thought, Maisie knew Chesterton personally, and often added her own knowledge of the man, as well as detailing some personal (and hilarious) stories. She includes writing of his on nearly every page, including many letters, poems, and since lost essays. Whether you are familiar with Chesterton or not, you will find yourself begging for more by the end.
August 24, 2016
Two short verses, which I later learnt belong to two separate poems, have been in my consciousness for a long time, I know not why. All I know is that they possess a poetic quality and joy that entrances me. I also read “The Man Who Was Thursday”, an unusual and hilarious romp of a novel. They were both by G K Chesterton. I was curious to know more about a writer whose mind was of such an original turn and range. There is a mention of God in the poetry, which made my interest even more curious, as I am not in the least religious, in the accepted sense.
This biography was not the one mentioned on the library list. It was brought from the bowels of the building, a tome that showed its age, 1944 – yellowed pages, tattered binding. I began to read it with great enjoyment. This was the portrait of a man, loved and known by the author and her family. She studied the work in detail, formulating his ideas and philosophy about a myriad of topics. GKC wrote extensively, and perhaps because of that, a little dauntingly, so it does help when the biographer singles out important passages and gives an overview of his subject's thought. He often used paradox, which inspired amusing verses by Edward Anthony called Paradoxygen. GKC makes extravagant connections and has trains of thought that are startling and unexpected, yet lead to a fundamental truth. Above all, he gave his readers a fresh look at the world. I feel very attuned to that way of thinking.
GKC was a huge man, whose girth did not stop him from a prodigious output, from giving lectures and travelling. He was helped in this by his wife Frances, who compensated for his absentmindedess.
He went through a very dark period in his youth, where his imaginings led him to draw what is described as “horrible” drawings”. Aware of the dangers of such a state, he emerged with a love of life and sheer existence. His gave full reign to his sense of humour, all the while keeping an attitude of kindness towards others. It is probable that it is at this time that he sensed that his feelings of what I can only term gratitude, reached for an anchor – some rules or ritual to give cohesion to his very personal mysticism. He found it in the Catholic Church, though not without a great inner struggle. Here Maisie Ward, a staunch Catholic, will rebuke me for misinterpretation, ignorance, what have you.
When the phase of his conversion is reached, I found the tone of the biography to be coloured by a lack of objectivity, but then, this is ultimately a personal biography. It did not stop me from understanding Chesterton's love of life. He needed to thank "my God for all the grass”. He advocated Christianity above any social panacea such as socialism, communism, because it said 'give to the poor'. The more important point, which I totally endorse, is to regenerate yourself, both socially and spiritually, cultivating personal sacrifice, patience, cheerfulness and good temper. He believed Christianity did that. Others may say that this is not the sole province of the follower of a religion. He believed strongly that Britain began to deteriorate morally and in other ways when it repudiated Catholicism. The monasteries had been sanctuaries for the poor. Moreover, they had owned land, from which the people could earn a living.
His flights of fancy and playful humour gave his writing a special vitality.There are so many ideas that I will give brief quotations at the end. What MW wrote with insight may explain the great appeal of GKC, whatever one's views :
“It was universally acknowledged that GKC might commit a hundred inaccuracies and yet get at the heart of his subject in a way that the most painstaking biographer and critic could not emulate.” A case in point was his book on St Thomas Aquinas, which he wrote with minimal research, relying on his powers of intuition, and which a biographer of the same subject praised unreservedly.
I should add that this book is an interesting and informative historical record of the early 20th century. There is a chapter on the Marconi affair, which I had not heard of.
On “The Supreme adventure of being born”
“There we do see something of which we have not dreamed before. Our father and mother do lie in wait for us and leap out on us., like brigands from a bush. Our uncle is a surprise. Our aunt is, in the beautiful common expression, a bolt from the blue. When we step into the family, we step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world that we have not made.”
On property:
“modern capitalism is really a negation of property, because it is a denial of its limitations….it the negation of property that the ~Duke of Sutherland shoud have all the farms in one estate, just as it would be the negation of marriage if he had all our wives in one harem."
These are the verses which, in a roundabout way, led me to Chesterton:
“In heaven I shall stand on gold and glass,
still brooding earth's arithmetic to spell,
or see the fading fires of hell,
ere I have thanked my God for all the grass.
Speller of the stones and weeds,
skilled in nature's crafts and creeds,
tell me what is the heart
of the smallest of the seeds.
Finally, it might interest you to read what Wilfred Sheed wrote about his mother Maisie Ward, in the biography “Frank and Maisie”. Or go to www.basicincome.com/bp/franksheed
This biography was not the one mentioned on the library list. It was brought from the bowels of the building, a tome that showed its age, 1944 – yellowed pages, tattered binding. I began to read it with great enjoyment. This was the portrait of a man, loved and known by the author and her family. She studied the work in detail, formulating his ideas and philosophy about a myriad of topics. GKC wrote extensively, and perhaps because of that, a little dauntingly, so it does help when the biographer singles out important passages and gives an overview of his subject's thought. He often used paradox, which inspired amusing verses by Edward Anthony called Paradoxygen. GKC makes extravagant connections and has trains of thought that are startling and unexpected, yet lead to a fundamental truth. Above all, he gave his readers a fresh look at the world. I feel very attuned to that way of thinking.
GKC was a huge man, whose girth did not stop him from a prodigious output, from giving lectures and travelling. He was helped in this by his wife Frances, who compensated for his absentmindedess.
He went through a very dark period in his youth, where his imaginings led him to draw what is described as “horrible” drawings”. Aware of the dangers of such a state, he emerged with a love of life and sheer existence. His gave full reign to his sense of humour, all the while keeping an attitude of kindness towards others. It is probable that it is at this time that he sensed that his feelings of what I can only term gratitude, reached for an anchor – some rules or ritual to give cohesion to his very personal mysticism. He found it in the Catholic Church, though not without a great inner struggle. Here Maisie Ward, a staunch Catholic, will rebuke me for misinterpretation, ignorance, what have you.
When the phase of his conversion is reached, I found the tone of the biography to be coloured by a lack of objectivity, but then, this is ultimately a personal biography. It did not stop me from understanding Chesterton's love of life. He needed to thank "my God for all the grass”. He advocated Christianity above any social panacea such as socialism, communism, because it said 'give to the poor'. The more important point, which I totally endorse, is to regenerate yourself, both socially and spiritually, cultivating personal sacrifice, patience, cheerfulness and good temper. He believed Christianity did that. Others may say that this is not the sole province of the follower of a religion. He believed strongly that Britain began to deteriorate morally and in other ways when it repudiated Catholicism. The monasteries had been sanctuaries for the poor. Moreover, they had owned land, from which the people could earn a living.
His flights of fancy and playful humour gave his writing a special vitality.There are so many ideas that I will give brief quotations at the end. What MW wrote with insight may explain the great appeal of GKC, whatever one's views :
“It was universally acknowledged that GKC might commit a hundred inaccuracies and yet get at the heart of his subject in a way that the most painstaking biographer and critic could not emulate.” A case in point was his book on St Thomas Aquinas, which he wrote with minimal research, relying on his powers of intuition, and which a biographer of the same subject praised unreservedly.
I should add that this book is an interesting and informative historical record of the early 20th century. There is a chapter on the Marconi affair, which I had not heard of.
On “The Supreme adventure of being born”
“There we do see something of which we have not dreamed before. Our father and mother do lie in wait for us and leap out on us., like brigands from a bush. Our uncle is a surprise. Our aunt is, in the beautiful common expression, a bolt from the blue. When we step into the family, we step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world that we have not made.”
On property:
“modern capitalism is really a negation of property, because it is a denial of its limitations….it the negation of property that the ~Duke of Sutherland shoud have all the farms in one estate, just as it would be the negation of marriage if he had all our wives in one harem."
These are the verses which, in a roundabout way, led me to Chesterton:
“In heaven I shall stand on gold and glass,
still brooding earth's arithmetic to spell,
or see the fading fires of hell,
ere I have thanked my God for all the grass.
Speller of the stones and weeds,
skilled in nature's crafts and creeds,
tell me what is the heart
of the smallest of the seeds.
Finally, it might interest you to read what Wilfred Sheed wrote about his mother Maisie Ward, in the biography “Frank and Maisie”. Or go to www.basicincome.com/bp/franksheed
May 11, 2018
Arguably the best biography on Chesterton. You learn to love him even more, if that's possible. A must read for all GKC lovers. You won't regret it. I even did an analytical index about the topics I particularly enjoyed. Go get it and have a blast reading... and laughing.
January 17, 2023
Excellent. Amazing.
“He excelled in the soft answer….Belloc said of him that he possessed the two virtues of humility and charity.” Fellow writers, rival journalists, friends, furnished often enough material for a quarrel, but Chesterton would never take it up. In the heat of an argument, he retained a fairness of mind that saw his opponents case, and would never turn an argument into a quarrel. Most people both liked him and felt that he liked them. (Excerpts from chapter 29)
“He excelled in the soft answer….Belloc said of him that he possessed the two virtues of humility and charity.” Fellow writers, rival journalists, friends, furnished often enough material for a quarrel, but Chesterton would never take it up. In the heat of an argument, he retained a fairness of mind that saw his opponents case, and would never turn an argument into a quarrel. Most people both liked him and felt that he liked them. (Excerpts from chapter 29)
January 20, 2024
Great book. Great first peek at Chesterton's life. Does get bogged down in some of the particulars of the time that are hard to engage with, but over all it was very well done. (I just wish she would have referenced where all the quotes came from!)
October 8, 2019
This book is worth reading for the chapter on the role of Our Lady in Chesterton’s conversion alone.
January 10, 2023
I listened on LibriVox and really loved it. One of the readers was a British female, and I felt like I was sitting in Maisie Ward’s parlor listening to her. Not merely the voice, but the chatty and loving prose style.
February 28, 2022
One of the best biographies I've ever read, especially because it heavily quotes from Chesterton's work, his personal papers, and from the works and letters of his family and friends. Written by a friend of the Chestertons, this is a wonderful mix of biography and personal remembrance, and I love every layer of it.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews