W. R. Titterton
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William Richard Titterton (1876 – 1963) was a British journalist, writer and poet now remembered as the friend and first biographer of G. K. Chesterton. Titterton and Chesterton met on the London Daily News[1].
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[edit] Early life
In his younger days he wrote copiously for A. R. Orage's The New Age. He was the model for some of Jacob Epstein's nude sculptures; he modelled too for George Grey Barnard, for the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania courthouse[2].
[edit] The Weekly and the League
Titterton was in practical terms the organiser of Chesterton's Distributist League, and sub-editor of G. K.'s Weekly.
There were financial problems, and embarrassment caused by Titterton's commissioning of articles on H. G. Wells by the lesser writer Edwin Pugh; Pugh's articles had a hostile edge and Chesterton had to pacify Wells[3]. His position on the Weekly came to an end in 1928, when he was replaced by Edward Macdonald[4], in a temporarily acrimonious situation, leading to the separation of the Weekly and the League[5].
Under Chesterton's influence, he became a Catholic convert in 1931[6].
[edit] Works
- River Music and other poems (1900)
- Love Poems (New Age Press, c 1908)
- An Afternoon Tea Philosophy (1910)
- The Drifters (1910)
- Me As A Model (1914)
- London Scenes (1918)
- Guns and Guitars (1918) poems
- Drinking Songs and other songs (1928)
- A Candle to the Stars (1932) interviews
- G. K. Chesterton: A Portrait (1936) biography, Online text (PDF)
- Poems for the Forces (1943)
- London Pride (1944)
- So this is Shaw (1945) biography
- Poems: A Backward Glance (1959)
[edit] Notes
- ^ Titterton, G. K. Chesterton, p.75.
- ^ New York Times, December 20, 1914
- ^ Maisie Ward, Gilbert Keith Chesterton (2005 edition), p. 365.
- ^ Joseph Pearce, Wisdom and Innocence (1996), p. 358.
- ^ Alzina Stone Dale, The Outline of Sanity: A Biography of G. K. Chesterton (2005), p. 267.
- ^ Joseph Pearce, Literary Converts (1999), p. 190.
