Reading a biography about Chesterton, I start to realize that he was primarily a journalist. Both 'The defendant' and 'Twelve Types' (and 'All things considered', the bundle I just started) are collections of his journalistic work. I read that Chesterton became well-known because of his writings opposing the Boer war.
Now in the bundles I read, there was up to now not one direct reference to his war (though some indirect comments can be found in 'the defence of patriotism'). Perhaps I'll find these articles later on, or perhaps they are not readily available because they may have lost their relevance (the Boer war being over long ago).
The interesting thing is that so many of Chesterton's journalistic work is still both interesting and relevant to read nowadays. I may confess that I do not know too much about all the persons Chesterton discusses in 'Twelve Types', but even I heard about most of them. The 'Defences' are timeless, and even the discussion about 'Cockney humor' in 'All things considered' has something to say to us today.
It makes one wonder how many journalistic pieces from today's newspaper are still readable in one hundred years.
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