A Ballade of Suicide by G. K. Chesterton

LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 recordings of A Ballade of Suicide by G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936).
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for May 20th to June 3rd, 2012.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer. He published works on philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction. Chesterton has been called the “prince of paradox”. Time magazine, in a review of a biography of Chesterton, observed of his writing style: “Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out.” For example, Chesterton wrote “Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.”
(Summary by Wikipedia)

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The Song Against Songs by G. K. Chesterton

LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 recordings of The Song Against Songs by G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936). This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for October 16th to October 30th, 2011.

Chesterton was a large man, standing 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and weighing around 21 stone (130 kg; 290 lb). His girth gave rise to a famous anecdote. During World War I a lady in London asked why he was not ‘out at the Front’; he replied, ‘If you go round to the side, you will see that I am.’ On another occasion he remarked to his friend George Bernard Shaw: “To look at you, anyone would think a famine had struck England”. Shaw retorted, “To look at you, anyone would think you have caused it”. P. G. Wodehouse once described a very loud crash as “a sound like Chesterton falling onto a sheet of tin.”( Summary from Wikipedia )

 

Running time=2m 19s (mp3@64kb)