"I still hold that it is the main earthly business of a human being to make his home...
as symbolic and significant to his own imagination as he can;
whether the home be in Notting Hill or Nicaragua, in Palestine or in Pittsburgh."-G.K.Chesterton, "The Artistic Side"

Sunday, November 3, 2013

November 14, 2013 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society


Greetings Friends of G.K.Chesterton,

I hope that you will consider joining us on Thursday November 14, 2013 for our WPA Chesterton Society meeting.

 As usual, the meeting will be 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 will open at 7:00pm for pot luck refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. The meeting will wrap up around 9:30pm. 

 The two pieces for discussion this month are selections from the book In Defense of Sanity. 

The first is the essay titled "On Shakespeare", originally published as a piece in the Illustrated London News and then it was published in 1928 as part of the essay collection Generally Speaking. This book is viewable as a pdf. download which can be found here. The essay "On Shakespeare" is on page 238 of that edition.

Admittedly, our discussion of this essay will be only brushing the surface of Chesterton on Shakespeare. There is a wealth of resources for those looking to broaden or deepen their understanding on the subject. One example is the website www.christianshakespeare.com. (If you take a quick look at the list of contributors to this site you will recognize some well known Chestertonians in the group.) Another resource would be the book written by Dale Ahlquist entitled The Soul of Wit. It is available here, from the American Chesterton Society as well as in numerous places on the web. 

The second essay for our discussion is "Mary Queen of Scots". I have not been able to find this one anywhere outside of the In Defense of Sanity book. If you find it, please post the info on our Facebook group page or send it in an email to me, so others who need it can find it.

Please read the readings before the meeting, and consider bringing a contribution to the refreshment table.

Feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com if you have any questions about the readings or anything else.

Hope to see you on November 14th!