ABOUT THIS
SITE
G. K.'s Website
The Name and Design of This Site
The name of G. K.'s Website is inspired by the similarly
sounding G. K.'s Weekly, Chesterton's "distributist" newspaper
which he edited from 1925-1936. The word play involved between the
two Chestertonian items was simply too tempting not to use. (Click
on the image of G. K.'s Weekly to see a larger version.) Some
design elements of Chesterton's paper also inspire the design of this
site, although not that many elements. Chesterton, himself, believed
that the Weekly, according to his biographer Maisie Ward, had
some defects of bad printing. However, it is challenging to combine
the look of the traditional print technology of Chesterton's time
with the emerging conventions of electronic publication to present a
pleasing synthesis that is reminiscent of the old but takes advantage
of the possibilities of the new.
The Robert John Bayer Chesterton Collection
The resources for producing G. K.'s Website reside in the
Robert John Bayer Chesterton Collection in the Special Collections
department at Grasselli Library, John Carroll University, University
Heights, Ohio. Bayer, a newsman and traffic expert, who became the
editor of Traffic World, collected Chestertonia for his
private library in LaGrange, Illinois. Bayer was the author of
Poor Man's Hobby: Being Notes of Encouragement to Those Who
Bravely Challenge Circumstance to Form a Collection of Books.
(Chicago: The Argus Book Shop, 1935). After Bayer died in 1956, his
collection came to John Carroll University. Grasselli Library has
been preserving and augmenting this major Chesterton collection ever
since that time. The Bayer Chesterton Collection, at present,
consists of over 1,100 items.
"Return to Chesterton . . . Contents" Icon
The "Return to Chesterton . . . Contents" icon, which is at the foot
of each web page, is a cropped version of the dust jacket for Maisie
Ward's Return to Chesterton (New York and London: Sheed &
Ward, 1952) a complementary volume to her biography Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1943; London: Sheed & Ward,
1944). The art work for the dust jacket was done by Thomas
Derrick (d. 1954), a cartoonist who contributed to G. K.'s
Weekly, as well as to other journals, such as Punch and
Time and Tide. (Click on the image of the dust jacket to see
a larger version. The jacket design is used on the web site by
permission of Sheed & Ward, 115 E. Armour Blvd., Kansas City, MO
64111.)
. . .
CONTENTS
The name of G. K.'s Website is inspired by the similarly
sounding G. K.'s Weekly, Chesterton's "distributist" newspaper
which he edited from 1925-1936. The word play involved between the
two Chestertonian items was simply too tempting not to use. (Click
on the image of G. K.'s Weekly to see a larger version.) Some
design elements of Chesterton's paper also inspire the design of this
site, although not that many elements. Chesterton, himself, believed
that the Weekly, according to his biographer Maisie Ward, had
some defects of bad printing. However, it is challenging to combine
the look of the traditional print technology of Chesterton's time
with the emerging conventions of electronic publication to present a
pleasing synthesis that is reminiscent of the old but takes advantage
of the possibilities of the new.
