Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born on 29 May, 1874 at 32 Sheffield Terrace, Campden Hill, London. He was the elder son of Edward Chesterton (an estate agent) and Marie Louise (née Grosjean). As Chesterton would later emphasize in his Autobiography (1936), he had a comfortable upbringing in a middle-class family and a generally happy childhood. Chesterton was somewhat absent-minded in his early years, and was noted to be a slow learner who did not acquire reading skills until he was eight years old. Nevertheless, he eventually became an avid reader, particularly of fairy-tales. Chatterton was also known for his fondness of debating in his youth--he was a dedicated member of of the St. Paul's School debating society. After graduating from St. Paul's School, Chesterton went on to study Latin, English and French at University College, London as well Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art, then a part of the college. Not feeling inclined towards academia, Chesterton abandoned post-secondary education in 1895 and worked as a publisher's reader while trying to establish himself as a man of letters. Soon afterward, he began to work as a reviewer and essayist, regularly contributing to the weekly The Speaker and the Daily News. In 1900, Chesterton published two collections of poems, of which "The Donkey" became an instant popular piece. In 1903, Chesterton published a study of Robert Browning, in the prestigious English Men of Letters series, which established him as a notable literary critic. It was during this time that Chesterton also began writing fiction and in 1904, his first novel, The Napoleon of Notting Hill was published. Inspired by Chesterton's pro-Boer stance during the South African War, this fantasy presented serious themes and was well received by reviewers. Four more fantasy novels were published between 1908 and 1914, but it was Chesterton's Father Brown detective stories that found the most success among his audiences. These stories (the first collection, The Innocence of Father Brown, appeared in 1911) follow a Roman Catholic priest whose work as a confessor has granted him excellent powers of observation and insight into the human mind. In later years, Chesterton converted to Roman Catholicism and focused on producing religious writings. At the end of 1918, Chesterton's life was shadowed by the death of his younger brother Cecil. Chesterton vowed to continue his brother's weekly newspaper New Witness (later renamed GK's Weekly) and he did so until his death. During the 1920s he was also active in the distributist movement. Situated between socialism and capitalism, this movement aimed at a middle ground by ensuring the widest possible distribution of property. Chesterton died on 14 June 1936 at his home, Top Meadow, Beaconsfield. Bergonzi, Bernard. “Chesterton, Gilbert Keith (1874–1936).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
Chesterton, G. K. Greybeards at Play: Literature and Art for Old Gentlemen, Rhymes and Sketches. London: Johnson, 1900; Sheed & Ward, 1930.
--.The Wild Knight and Other Poems. London: Richards, 1900; 4th revised ed. New York, N.Y.: Dutton, 1914.
--.The Ballad of the White Horse. New York, N.Y.: John Lane, 1911; Ed. by Sister Mary Bernadette, Brother John Totten and Brother George Schuster, ill. by Addison Burbank, Kirkwood, M.O.: Catholic Authors Press, 1950; Ed. by Bernadette Sheridan, ill. by Robert Austin, San Francisco, C.A.: Ignatius Press, 2001.
--.Poems. New York, N.Y.: John Lane, 1915.
--.Wine, Water and Song. London: Methuen, 1915, 1945.
--.A Poem. Privately published, 1915.
--.Old King Cole. Privately published, 1920.
--.The Ballad of St. Barbara and Other Verses. London: Palmer, 1922; New York, N.Y.: Putnam, 1923.
--.Poems. New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead, 1922.
--.G. K. Chesterton (collected poems). London: E. Benn, 1925; Methuen, 1933.
--.The Queen of Seven Swords. London: Sheed & Ward, 1926.
--.The Collected Poems of G. K. Chesterton. London: Palmer, 1927; New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead, 1932; revised ed., London: Methuen, 1933; New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead, 1966, with an introduction by Daniel B. Dodson, 1980.
--.Gloria in Profundis. London: Faber, 1927.
--.Ubi Ecclesia. London: Faber, 1929.
--.Lepanto. New York, N.Y: Federal Advertising Agency, 1929; San Francisco, C.A.: Ignatius Press, 2004.
--.The Grave of Arthur. London: Faber, 1930.
--.Graybeards at Play and Other Comic Verse. Ed. by John Sullivan. London: Elek, 1974.
Born May 6 (some sources say May 7), 1861, in Calcutta, Rabindranath Tagore became one of the prolific writers in the world, poet, artist, dramatist, musician, novelist, and essayist. He was completely at home both in Bengali and in English, in part because he was educated at University College, London, in 1879-80. He had become the national poet of Bengal by the time of his Golden Jubilee in Calcutta on January 28, 1912, but his international fame only came in November 1913 when he won the Nobel Prize for literature for Gitanjali, a collection of poetry initially brought out in Bengali in 1910 and then translated by the poet and published in English in 1912 with an introduction by W. B. Yeats. He translated so many volumes of his own Benjali poems personally that he can be regarded as an Anglo-Indian poet. Tagore resided at Shantiniketan and Ashram and founded a school at the former place that turned into Visva-Bharati University in 1918, the present-day holder of the Tagore copyright (which ran out on January 1, 2002). Mrinalini Devi Raichaudhuri and he wed, in an arranged marriage, Dec. 9, 1883, and they had five children: three daughters, Madhurilata, Renuka, and Mira, and two sons, Rathindranath and Samindranath. Tagore obtained honorary degrees from the universities of Calcutta (1913), Dacca (1936), Osmania (1938), and Oxford (1940). He died August 7, 1941, in Calcutta, and was cremated.
Romesh Chunder Dutt was born in Calcutta on August 13, 1848, and received his education there and at University College and the Middle Temple, London. He was called to the bar and in 1869 passed the examination for entrance to the Indian civil service, in which he served -- as the only native Indian in the nineteenth century to rise to executive authority -- from 1871 to 1897. His positions included collector of Backerganj, acting commissioner of Burdwan, and commissioner of Orissa. Created a C.I.E. in 1892, Dutt returned to England and became lecturer in Indian history at University College in London from 1898 to 1904. In India he had written works on Bengal history and literature, done school primers, penned half a dozen romances in his own tongue, and translated into Bengali the Rig Veda in 1886. At London, in 1899-1900, Dutt published an English translation of excerpts from the Mahabharata and Ramayana, which in time came out in the Everyman's Library series. He wrote political and social tracts to influence British colonial policy and from 1904 to his death of a heart attack in 1909 served as revenue and then prime minister of Baroda. Dutt and Nobo Gopal Bose wed in 1864 and had a son and five daughters.
Dutt, Romesh Chunder. Cultural Heritage of Bengal; a Biographical and Critical History from the Earliest Times Closing with a Review of Intellectual Progress under British Rule in India. 3rd edn. Calcutta: Punthi Pustak, 1962. PK 1701 8 962 Robarts Library
--. Early Hindu civilisation: B.C. 2000 to 320, Based on Sanskrit Literature. 4th edn. Calcutta: Punthi Pustak, 1963. DS 451 D97 1963 Robarts Library
--. The Economic History of India under Early British Rule; from the Rise of the British Power in 1757 to the Accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. 2nd edn. London K. Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1906. Ec.H D9793e Robarts Library
--. England and India: a Record of Progress during a Hundred Years, 1785-1885. New Delhi, India: Mudgal Publications, 1985. DS 463 D86 1985 Robarts Library
--. Famines and Land Assessments in India. Delhi: B.R. Pub., 1985. HJ 4392 I4D88 1985 Robarts Library
--. India in the Victorian age; an Economic History of the People. London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1904. Ec.H D9793ind Robarts Library
--. The Lake of Palms: a Story of Indian Domestic Life. 2nd edn. London: Fisher Unwin, 1903. DS 421 D88 1903 Robarts Library
--. Later Hindu Civilisation, A.D. 500 to A.D. 1200, based on Sanskrit Literature. 4th edn. Calcutta: Punthi Pustak, 1965. DS 425 D87 1965 Robarts Library
--. Lays of Ancient India: Selections from Indian Poetry Rendered into English Verse. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1894. British Library 2318.h.9
--. The Literature of Bengal: a Biographical and Critical History from the Earliest Times, Closing with a Review of Intellectual Progress under British Rule in India. Calcutta: T. Spink, 1895. PK 1701 K8 1895 Victoria College Library
--. Open Letters to Lord Curzon and Speeches and Papers. Intro. D.N. Gupta. Delhi, India: Gian, 1986. HC 434 D88 1986 Robarts Library
--. Reminiscences of a Workman's Life. Calcutta: privately printed, 1896.
--. Sivaji; a Historical Tale of the Great Mahratta Hero and Patriot. Allahabad: Kitabistan, 1944. PK 1718 D887M313 Robarts Library
--, trans. Maha-Bharata, Epic of the Bharatas. London: Ballantyne, Hanson, 1898. PK 3633 A2D8 Robarts Library
--. Mahabharata Condensed in English Verse. Calcutta: Elm Press, 1906. BL 1138.2 1906 Robarts Library
--. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata, condensed into English verse. London: Dent, 1929. LSansk D9789r Robarts Library
Born September 5, 1861, Walter Alexander Raleigh received his education at the City of London School, Edinburgh Academy, University College London, and King's College Cambridge. His academic appointments were as Professor of English Literature at the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College in Aligarh (1885-87), Professor of Modern Literature at the University College Liverpool (1890-1900), Chair of English Language and Literature at Glasgow University (1900-1904), and Chair of English Literature at Oxford (1904-22). Until 1914, when he turned to the war as his subject, Raleigh published works on many major English authors. His finest book may be the first volume of The War in the Air (1922). He died from typhoid (contracted during a visit to the Near East) on May 13, 1922, survived by his wife Lucie Gertrude and their four sons and one daughter. His son Hilary edited his light prose, verse, and plays in Laughter from a Cloud (1923).
Jones, Henry Albert. Sir Walter Raleigh and the air history, a personal recollection. London: E. Arnold, 1922. D 602 .R342J6 Robarts Library
--. England and the war, being sundry addresses delivered during the war and now first collected. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918. HMod R1634e Robarts Library
--. The English novel; a short sketch of its history from the earliest times to the appearance of Waverley. London: J. Murray, 1919. PR 821 .R2 1919 Robarts Library
--. The English voyages of the sixteenth century. Glasgow: Jackson, Wylie, 1926. G 242 .R35 1926 Robarts Library
--. Laughter from a cloud. Preface by Hilary Raleigh. London: Constable, 1923. PR 6035 .A4L3 Robarts Library
--. The letters (1879-1922). 2nd edn. Ed. Lady Raleigh. London: Methuen, 1928. CT/R138 Victoria College Library
--. The meaning of a University; an inaugural address delivered to the students of University College, Aberystwyth on the 20th of October, 1911. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911. Educat. Univ. O Robarts Library
--. Milton. London: E. Arnold, 1900. PR 3581 .R3 St. Michael's College Library
--. On writing and writers, by Walter Raleigh; being extracts from his note-books. London: E. Arnold, 1926. PR 99 .R34 Robarts Library
--. Poetry and fact : an inaugural address delivered at University College, Liverpool, March 13th, 1890. Liverpool: H. Young, 1890. PN 1031 .R34 Robarts Library
--. Romance: two lectures delivered at Princeton University, May 4th and 5th, 1915. Princeton: University Press, 1916. PR 447 .R37 1916 Robarts Library
--. Samuel Johnson: lecture delivered Cambridge, 22 February, 1907. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907. Pam/PR/J637Ra Victoria College Library
--. Six essays on Johnson. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910. PR 3533 .R35 Robarts Library
--. Some authors: a collection of literary essays, 1896-1916. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1923. PN 511 .R3 Victoria College Library
--. Some gains of the war; an address to the Royal Colonial Institute delivered Feb. 13, 1918. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918. Pamph HMod R Robarts Library
--. The study of English literature. Glasgow: Maclehose, 1900. Pamph LE R Robarts Library
--. The war in the air; being the story of the part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force. 6 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922-37. D 602 .R34 Robarts Library
--. The war of ideas: an address to the Royal colonial institute, delivered Dec. 12, 1916. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1917. D 525 .R3 Robarts Library
--. Wordsworth. London: E. Arnold, 1903. PR 5881 .R27 1903 Victoria College Library
--. Shakespeare's England: an account of the life and manners of his age. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1916. PR 2910 .S5 1916 Victoria College Library
Smith, D. Nichol. "Raleigh, Sir Walter Alexander." Dictionary of National Biography 1922-1937. 701-04.