Nearly a century after his death, G. K. Chesterton comes out with a new book . . . about himself!

Renowned Chesterton scholar Dale Ahlquist presents a unique retelling of Chesterton's life in Chesterton’s own words, drawn from hundreds of sources—including material that has not been seen for over a hundred years—and edited into a narrative. Ahlquist has used bits and pieces, sentences and paragraphs, even poems, to allow the Prince of Paradox, while talking about something else, to give many revealing glimpses of himself. Although Chesterton penned an autobiography at the end of his life, he mostly wrote about other people. Here, finally, is the person he neglected to tell us about: G. K. Chesterton.

Ahlquist’s careful compilation yields a new, intimate look at the most interesting character in Chesterton’s story: the man holding the pen. We learn about his youth, his beginnings as a writer, his rise as a literary star, his family and friends and foes, his travels, his struggles and temptations, his controversies, his sorting out the mystery of life, and his conversion to the Catholic faith.

For many readers, even those familiar with Chesterton, much of the material in this book will be completely new. Ahlquist also provides an extensive timeline of Chesterton's life, which is itself a compact biography.  

“G. K. Chesterton stood truth on its head so that we could see it afresh from new angles. This new ‘life’ of the great man, told in his own words almost ninety years after his death, stands the art of autobiography on its head so that we can see Chesterton afresh from new angles. It might almost be said that this new ‘life’ breathes new life into Chesterton himself, introducing him with a fruitful freshness to a new generation in need of his wit, wisdom, and witness.”
—Joseph Pearce, Author, Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G. K. Chesterton 

“Most biographies give you the man’s life. This one gives you his soul—and not in vague terms, but in G. K. Chesterton’s own words, strung out between jokes and journalism, paradox, and poetry. Ahlquist has not just ‘drawn the man’, as Chesterton once said of Stevenson—he’s drawn the laugh, the fight, the faith, and the hidden glory. This book isn’t about Chesterton. It’s with Chesterton. And it’s a delight.”
—Brandon Vogt, Editor, Wisdom and Wonder: How Peter Kreeft Shaped the Next Generation of Catholics

“There’s nothing Chesterton of which Dale Ahlquist has not kept track, and this volume, the fruit of a frankly mind-boggling amount of careful and loving research, gives the reader not only the chronology and context but also the insight into and understanding of the life and thought of the man who may be the twentieth century’s most expansive mind and heart. It fills a giant void in Chesterton scholarship. It certainly is the most complete account of Chesterton to date, and one rendered by its painstaking notes altogether accessible to Chesterton veterans and novices alike.”
—Christopher Check, President, Catholic Answers

“Ahlquist presents us with an overlooked gold mine. He has spent more than three decades quarrying Chesterton’s thousands of speeches and journal essays to discover nuggets where Chesterton gives incidental (maybe accidental) insight into himself, and thus serves up a sampler platter of unnoticed, forgotten, or ignored passages by Chesterton about Chesterton. If you saw an old friend, whom you hadn’t seen for a long time, you might say to yourself, with a start: ‘I know that man! I’ve always liked him.’ So it feels while staring at glimpses of the master collected by his preeminent pupil.”
 —David W. Fagerberg, Professor Emeritus, University of Notre Dame