May 9, 2014 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians and Friends,

For our May and June meetings we will read selections from Chesterton’s biographical essay compilation The Twelve Types / Varied Types. The Twelve Types was compiled and published in 1903. The extended edition of the book, which was retitled Varied Types was published in 1908 and consists of the same original 12 essays with the addition of nine more biographical essays.

At our Friday, May 9 meeting we will read "Charles II", "Tolstoy and the Cult of Simplicity", and "The Position of Sir Walter Scott". These selection can be found both The Twelve Types, and in Varied Types. 

For our Friday, June 13 meeting we will read "Stevenson", and we will expand our selection to include two of the titles that appeared only in Varied Types, "Bret Harte", and "Queen Victoria".

All of the selections for both the May and June meetings can be viewed or printed at the link below:

http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/GKC_VariedTypes.html

Many readers of Chesterton have found that it is helpful in understanding G.K.Chesterton's essays if they start with at least a basic historical/biographical context for his insights. In light of this, I would suggest that any preparation time you invest in exploring information about the personalities we will be reading about will be worth your while. Bring notes of any of your the interesting background discoveries to share at the meeting!

(Remember, in July we are planning an undoubtedly rollicking discussion of the entire novel The Ball and the Cross.)

As usual...

Our meetings are held in the Village of Middle Lancaster, at the Lancaster Township Community Center located on Kings Alley and Community Center Drive, in Butler County PA. Kings Ally is off of Rt. 19 approx. 4.5 miles north of Zelienople, and just north of the Zion Lutheran Church and just south of East Lancaster Road. (The Community Center is a former one room school house, adjacent to the ball fields at Bauder Park.) The doors open at 7:00pm for pot luck refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. The meeting wraps up sometime around 9:30pm.

Please consider bringing something for the refreshment table, and as always, feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com if you have and questions or comments.