Welcome

Hello, and welcome to the website of the American Chesterton Society and Gilbert Magazine. At this website we unite the ACS and its house organ, Gilbert Magazine, in one Internet location. The great content – quotations, analysis, essays, and more – that you’ve come to expect from this page is here. And we have plenty of features, including more content from the print edition of Gilbert Magazine, Internet-exclusive content, and a future members-only section. Our revamped Website also is interactive. Comment with impunity!

For newcomers to this page and to G.K. Chesterton, what is all the fuss about? The American Chesterton Society works tirelessly to promote the writings and thought of G.K. Chesterton, one of the 20th century’s greatest writers. A convert to the Catholic Church, Chesterton wrote nearly a hundred books during his lifetime, and literally thousands of essays, in newspapers and magazines.

All the issues we struggle with in the 21st century, Chesterton foresaw, and wrote about, in the early 20th century. Social injustice, the culture of death, statism, assaults on religion, and attacks on the family and on the dignity of the human person: Chesterton saw where these trends, already active in his time, would lead us. He was a witty, intelligent, and insightful defender of the poor, the downtrodden, the weak, and especially of the family. He loved good beer, good wine, and good cigars. He wrote in just about every genre: history, biography, novels, poetry, short stories, apologetics and theology, economic works, and more.

As a literary critic, Chesterton was without parallel. His biography of Charles Dickens is credited with sparking the Dickens revival in London in the early 20th century. His biography of St. Thomas Aquinas was called the best book on St. Thomas ever written, by no less than Etienne Gilson, the 20th century’s greatest Thomistic scholar. His books Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man are considered the 20th century’s finest works of Christian and Catholic apologetics. And audiences still delight in the adventures of Chesterton’s priest sleuth, Father Brown, as well as such timeless novels as The Man Who Was Thursday, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, and others.

Despite his huge book output, Chesterton considered himself to be primarily a journalist. During his lifetime, he published literally thousands of essays in newspapers and journals on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Illustrated London News, the Daily News, his own newspaper, G.K’s Weekly, and the New York American. These essays are as fresh, invigorating, and relevant today as when they were first published.

Through lectures, research, an annual conference, a TV series on EWTN, and of course Gilbert Magazine, the American Chesterton Society works to promote Chesterton scholarship and to introduce Chesterton to people across the country and around the world. Recent projects include film adaptations of the Father Brown mystery “The Honor of Israel Gow,” an almost-finished adaptation of Chesterton’s novel Manalive, and, in cooperation with the Chesterton Society in England, research into Chesterton’s sanctity with the goal of opening his Cause for sainthood. Yes, sainthood. More than two hundred converts to the Catholic Church (and counting!) credit their conversions to reading G.K. Chesterton.

Gilbert Magazine. Where to start with G.K. Chesterton? One way is to pick any book and just start. To quote novelist Tim Powers, “Chesterton is one of those writers who you almost don’t care what he happens to be writing about what in any given book, he’s just so fun to listen to.” Besides that, the best introduction to this prolific author is Gilbert Magazine. Why GM? It is designed for the neophyte, with small doses of Chesterton so you don’t feel overwhelmed, yet with enough of him that, issue by issue, you gradually become friends with this warm and engaging man. You’ll discover what so many others have, that he has a way of opening your mind and your heart, and before you know it you can’t get enough of him.

Each issue contains original writings by Chesterton covering any subject under (or above) the sun. In addition, our own contributors write on family life, the arts, politics, faith, current events, popular culture, literary and film criticism, original short fiction (three stories each issue!) and even jogging. And of course, they all also write about G.K. Chesterton. And we have Chesterton quotes. Dozens of quotes, in each issue. “There is only one subject,” Chesterton once wrote. And though Gilbert Magazine has only one subject, that subject is G.K. Chesterton, which makes us more interesting than any other magazine you’ll ever read. Subscribe today! Subscribing makes you a member of the American Chesterton Society, and joining the American Chesterton Society gains you a subscription to Gilbert Magazine, which in addition to making you the most interesting person at parties, gets you a 20 percent discount on Chesterton books in our Store.

Sean P. Dailey

Editor-in-chief
Gilbert Magazine

Click here to read our sample issue, “Chesterton and the Jews”. 

To become a member of the American Chesterton Society and to subscribe to Gilbert Magazine, click here.