Successful First Meeting

The September meeting of the Chillicothe Chesterton Society got off to a great start tonight, with three of us meeting at Schlegel's. We talked about Chesterton and everything else. Pictured above, from left to right, are Tim Binkley, Margaret Breidenbaugh, and Bob Cook. Tim is from Lancaster and Margaret resides, for the next few days at least, in Chillicothe. Tim is reading The Everlasting Man, Margaret is reading Orthodoxy, having recently completed reading several Father Brown stories. The subject for our October meeting will be Lepanto, the battle and Chesterton's poem. I'll post a bit more about Lepanto over the next few days.

Society Meetings to Resume September 16, 2009

After a several month's long Summer hiatus, the regular monthly meetings of the Chillicothe Chesterton Society will resume on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 7 p.m. in Schlegel's Coffee House and Art Gallery. I'll have the most recent Gilbert Magazines available, and the books I've left at Schlegel's will be available, too. We can use this first meeting of the year to learn a bit about G.K. Chesterton as well as each other.

Looking ahead to October, the subject of the meeting will be Chesterton's poem, Lepanto. Never heard of the poem or the Battle? Just take a moment and read Wikipedia's entry about "one of the decisive events in the world."

I hope to see you at Schlegels. The libations are on me!

Yet Another Title to be Added to the Schlegel Collection

In my continuing efforts to get Chillicotheans interested in G. K. Chesterton, I have left nine free copies of the Dover edition of Favorite Father Brown Stories on the bookshelf at Schlegel's Coffee House for taking/borrowing by interested readers. I have some Chillicothe Chesterton Society cards in them, so that if after reading the stories someone wants to join the Society (no dues) they'll have the necessary info available.

Dramatic Reading of Chesterton's "Manalive"

I had the good fortune to be able to purchase a copy of Kevin O'Brien's dramatic reading of Chesterton's Manalive at the recent Chesterton Conference. Also, as you can see, Kevin was kind enough to autograph the CD cover for me. The really valuable autograph, however, is on the back side of the box. It says "Whatever" signed Stanford Nutting.

Kevin O'Brien's Comments on The Chesterton Conference

Kevin O'Brien has some nice things to say, in the Saint Austin Review, about the recent Chesterton Conference held in Seattle, WA.

GKC Makes Cover of "The Weekly Standard"

Imagine my surprise when I checked my mail box and found my latest issue of The Weekly Standard had a caricature of Chesterton on the cover! I immediately posted the info on my Facebook page on and Facebook's Chesterton Fan page. The article on GKC is by Chuck Chalberg. It's a review of William Oddie's new book, Chesterton and the Romance of Orthodoxy.

Dr. Oddie spoke at last year's Chesterton Conference, noting that he was working on a book. We now have the book. I guess I'll just have to get Oddie's book, right after I finish reading Maisie Ward's biography of Chesterton.

Clerihews, What are They?

Per Wikipedia, Edmond Clerihew Bentley (10 July 1875 - 30 Mach 1956) was a popular English novelist and humorist of the early twentieth century, and the inventor of the clerihew, an irregular form of humorous verse on biographical topics. And of course a very close friend of G. K. Chesterton.

A clerihew is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem invented by Edmond Clerihew Bentley. The lines are comically irregular in length, and the rhymes, often contrived, are structured AABB.

Here's one I wrote:

Gier Hasnes
About Chesterton he does obsess.
The stories of his quests are legion.
What else would you expect of the world’s greatest living Norwegian?

I hope to write more during this coming year and submit them for judging at the next Chesterton Conference Clerihew Contest.