Known as the "Prince of Paradox", Gilbert Chesterton was a versatile writer of poems, essays, short stories, novels and criticism. The portly and iconoclastic author was noted for his witty, original essays and books. He also published biographies (St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis of Assisi), literary criticism and several popular novels, including, The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904). A social conservative, Chesterton became a Roman Catholic in 1922 and influenced many later English Catholic writers including Evelyn Waugh.
