Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine, I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full of Chesterton ancedotes. They were idiosyncratic, historical, and Chestertonian. He gave me permission to use them here. I hope y'all find them as interesting as I have over the years. Most of them have never been published.
Chesterton Short(s)
According to historian Robert R. James, the days following the Boer ultimatum of October, 1895 found very few in England who were not solidly behind the idea of war. James quotes Chesterton on the solidarity of the British on the question, noting that Chesterton was one of the very few who did not share the pervasively optimistic, even cheerful assurance of victory. [The British Revolution: 1880-1939, New York: Knopf, 1977]
