G.K.'s Weekly was a British publication founded in 1925 (with its pilot edition surfacing in late 1924) by writer G. K. Chesterton, continuing until his death in 1936. Its articles typically discussed topical cultural, political, and socio-economic issues yet the publication also ran poems, cartoons, and other such material that piqued Chesterton's interest. It contained much of his journalistic work done in the latter part of his life, and extracts from it were published as the book The Outline of Sanity. Precursor publications existed by the names of The Eye-Witness and The New Witness, the former being a weekly newspaper started by Hilaire Belloc in 1911, the latter Belloc took over from Cecil Chesterton, Gilbert's brother, who died in World War I: and a revamped version of G. K.'s Weekly continued some years after Chesterton's death by the name of The Weekly Review.
As an alternative publication outside of the mainstream press of the time, G. K.'s Weekly never attained a particularly large readership, with its highest circulation being some eight thousand. However, it attracted significant support from several benefactors, which included notables such as the internationally famous conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. Individuals whose work appeared in G. K.'s Weekly include public figures such as E. C. Bentley, Alfred Noyes, Ezra Pound, and George Bernard Shaw as well as (at the very beginning of his career) George Orwell. The relationship between the Distributist League and G. K.'s Weekly being a very close one, the publication advocated the philosophy of distributism in contrast to both the centre-right and centre-left attitudes of the time regarding socialism and industrialism.
In terms of criticism, the publication has garnered condemnation for alleged antisemitic prejudice to be found in the views of Gilbert and Cecil Chesterton as well as of Hilaire Belloc. The controversy has involved sorting out the distinct differences in the opinions of the three men versus that of others within the publication, as essentially everyone featured had their own nuances to their viewpoints and would disagree among themselves. Critics have alleged that the writers often featured false stereotypes and made ignorant arguments about British capitalistic society while defenders have viewed the accusations as biased and misleading.
History Hilaire Belloc founded a weekly newspaper in 1911 that he titled The Eye-Witness. The publication lasted only a year, though it gained notoriety for publishing articles on the Marconi scandal. It was the first place in which Gilbert Chesterton released the famous poem Lepanto. Belloc focused his energies on anti-capitalist and anti-communist articles fighting against what he saw as the collusion of the many British government members with corrupt forces, writing in a brash style. Belloc relinquished the editorship to Cecil Chesterton but continued writing for it.
When Charles Granville, backer of The Eye-Witness, went bankrupt in 1912 Chesterton's father financed the magazine under the title The New Witness. The style and contents remained essentially the same. Gilbert Chesterton took over as editor in 1916 when his brother left to serve in the British Army during the Great War. Chesterton spent seven years (1916–1923) continuing at the helm of The New Witness, enduring the loss of his brother in 1918. Taking advice to fundamentally change the publication, on 21 March 1925, Chesterton unveiled G.K.'s Weekly.
With the continuation of G. K.'s Weekly even after Gilbert's death, with Belloc's son-in-law Reginald Jebb joining alongside Hilary Pepler to support the effort, the complete series of publications therefore reads as
The Eye-Witness (1911–1912) → The New Witness (1912–1923) → G. K.'s Weekly (1925–1936) → The Weekly Review (1936/37 – 1948, when it became a short-lived monthly).Everyman, edited 1912–17 by Charles Saroléa, was another publication in which Titterton and the Chestertons wrote from a Distributist angle.A full account of distributism is complicated by the way from about 1920 Orage also had a comparable political and economic doctrine, Social Credit, amongst his major concerns; this other 'wing' drew in Ezra Pound, for example.
In total, the series of publications featured hundreds of articles, including well over a hundred poems. Some essays from G.K.'s Weekly have appeared in the books The Outline of Sanity, The Well and the Shallows, The End of the Armistice, The Common Man, and The Coloured Lands. Some originals of the weekly have been collected by educational institutions such as Christendom College.
Background and content
Typical contents The bulk of the material published was composed by Gilbert Chesterton himself (the precursor publications before 1925 had far less involvement by him). Besides standard works of a publication of its type at the time such as long essays and short news items, he intended to use it as a kind of 'scrapbook' and added a variety of other material such as poems, pieces of fiction, cartoons, and so on. He additionally would personally answer letters to the editor at times.
G.K.'s Weekly generally published from a viewpoint of distributism, social traditionalism, and democratic pluralism, with criticism against both 'big government' and 'big business' while in support of the 'common man' (in Chesterton's view) intermingled with commentary on social and cultural topics. He would condemn ideological trends such as Marxist-Leninism in depth while drawing upon his own strong Roman Catholic faith. As in his books, Chesterton was known for writing in the weekly in a pithy, witty style, such as with the following short book review: "Lenin by Leon Trotsky. The publication of this book has caused the exile of Trotsky; but there are books equally bad written every week without any specific punishment being inflicted".
In a 1932 work in the publication, Chesterton argued, "Communism is that form of Capitalism in which all workers have an equal wage. Capitalism is that form of Communism in which the organizing officials have a very large salary. That is the difference; and that is the only difference." He wrote in another writing published that same year, "The right and essential thing [is] that as many people as possible should have the natural, original forms of sustenance as their own property."
Distributism in context The essential continuity under the main editorial figures (those mentioned above, and W. R. Titterton who was Gilbert's sub-editor), is a manifestation of the political and economic doctrine of distributism. This was mainly the work of Belloc, Gilbert and Cecil Chesterton, and Arthur Penty, and had its origins in an Edwardian-era split of Fabian socialism in London circles, around A. R. Orage and his prominent publication The New Age.Titterton put it this way in his biography G. K. Chesterton (pp. 62–3):
"...just before the Eye Witness began, there was a fine controversy at the New Age." [...] "I admit that though our plan provides for the craftsman, some Distributists tend to ignore him. We need Penty, and Penty needs us." "In the end the Socialist element in Orage's make-up made him weaken on the Gild theory, which he debased with a Socialist alloy."
In founding The Eye-Witness, Belloc took a title of a book of essays of his own from a couple of years before, and drew initially on a group of writers more associated with The Speaker.Editor J. L. Hammond, an old paper bought up by a group of young Liberals (Robert Speaight's biography of Belloc goes into this). Before the Marconi scandal, at least, the writers were a broad group.
The papers under discussion in this article became, in practical terms, the organs of the distributist group. This came together as the Distributist League in 1926,: "In 1926, the Distributist League was founded, mainly in order to help the G. K. Weekly's finances." as G. K.'s Weekly appeared as a revamped publication. The main business of the League, organisationally, fell to Titterton. The League had its own newsletter from 1931.: In 1931, the Distributist League began publishing its own newsletter, The Distributionist, as G. K.'s Weekly could no longer keep up with the heavy editorial traffic.
Readership details with Chesterton as editor and campaigner G. K.'s Weekly never picked up a particularly large readership, being viewed as outside of the mainstream press of the time. Its highest circulation worked out to only about eight thousand. Yet the weekly attracted significant support from several benefactors, including the internationally famous conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, many well-known writers contributed material, including E. C. Bentley, Alfred Noyes, Ezra Pound, and George Bernard Shaw.
The relationship between the Distributist League and G. K.'s Weekly was close, at times essentially inseparable. Chesterton travelled the country to local distributist chapters in order the spread the word about the publication and also to promote his viewpoints.There is an account by Marshall McLuhan of how he attended a London League meeting in June 1935, travelling from Cambridge, where he was a doctoral student, with the local distributist activist. G. K.'s Weekly provided little financially for Chesterton; it was not a lucrative venture by any means in his mind, but he kept it going as a gesture of respect for Cecil's memory.Maisie Ward in Gilbert Keith Chesterton goes into the financial side, naming Lord Howard de Walden (T. E. Ellis, or Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis) as one of the patrons. The financial state of the publication meant that contributors could expect little or no reward. One later famous name who first broke into journalism this way was George Orwell (then going by 'E. A. Blair').His first article for an English publication was "A Farthing Newspaper" which appeared in G. K.'s on 29 December 1928, placed from Paris where he was at the time.
Editorial policy in the latter days of G. K.'s Weekly in terms of foreign policy and also electoral politics involved nuanced positions, with Gilbert Chesterton providing a generally moderating influence. Chesterton, for example, held ambiguous and conflicted views about Italy under fascism. Until 1929, the Distributist League broadly supported the Labour Party and the British trade union movement. Sir Henry Slesser, a notable Labour Member of Parliament, served as one of the League's biggest supporters.
During the 1930s, the Soviet Union appeared the biggest enemy to the cause of the distributists, and a move towards monarchism and to support for fascist Italy took place. Upon Chesterton's death, G. K.'s Weekly openly backed the far-right forces of Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Nonetheless, the Distributist League and its followers backed the British declaration of war against the Axis powers in 1939.
Attitudes to Benito Mussolini specifically (whom GKC interviewed, see the Maisie Ward biography) in the 1930s has attracted attention. Chesterton made somewhat favourable remarks about contemporary Italy in his Autobiography (1935). However, the invasion of Abyssinia proved a dicey matter for Chesterton and his League.
After Chesterton's death Gilbert Chesterton's death on 14 June 1936 brought changes to the publication. Belloc resumed as editor, as in 1911.
After Chesterton died in 1936 the League was near collapseG. K. Chesterton but continued in a new form, until being closed down in 1940.MJP Text Viewer Arthur Penty's Distributist Manifesto was published in 1937; Belloc had taken over as president, and the vice-presidents included Eric Gill and T. S. Eliot.
Alleged antisemitic prejudice
Editorial controversies