​CHESTERTON, GILBERT KEITH, a British author and journalist; born at Kensington in 1874. He received his education at Slade School, and soon developed a marked bent for writing. He speedily became noted for his wit and his paradoxical style as well as for his wide range of information. Besides his contributions to periodicals he wrote many books, of which the most notable were: "Browning" (in English Men of Letters Series) (1904); "Heretics" (1905); "The Man Who Was Thursday" (1908); "The Ball and the Cross" (1910); "The Wisdom of Father Brown" (1914); "A Short History of England" (1917).