The official blog of the American Chesterton Society where we talk about anything Chesterton talks about or writes about; including everything and everything else.
"You should not look a gift universe in the mouth." GKC
Except for the moustache and hair colour, this is very much how I envision the famous seventh-of-a-ton-weighing detective Nero Wolfe (invented by Rex Stout). There is supposed to be some kind of secret code or hidden message or something because the vowels in his name are the same as in Sherlock Holmes by A. C. Doyle ... or is it by Shapeskeer? Or Bacon?
"There are too many keys to mythology, as there are too many cryptograms in Shakespeare." [GKC TEM CW2:235]
"People actually found cryptograms in Shakespeare; but there is nothing so very cryptic about a cryptogram. It is merely a sort of spelling game, by which a rather crude and clumsy series of words can somehow be traced through the thick of much more important and intelligent and beautiful words. Mrs. Gallup thus proved in an ingenious manner that Bacon wrote Shakespeare. Father Ronald Knox thus proved, much more successfully, that Queen Victoria wrote "In Memoriam." We can prove the impossibility of a cryptogram by the existence of so many cryptograms. The more often it is done, the more impossible it is to do." [ILN Jan 11 1936]
John Dickson Carr modeled his major detective, the fat and genial lexicographer Dr. Gideon Fell, on Chesterton. Pasquale Accardo gave a talk at a Chesterton conference some years ago detailing the resemblances. Carr did not try to copy Chesterton's personality, however, just his appearance. ~ Gramps
Yes, that's right - I forgot. It looks like Gideon Fell, too. But the grumpy face looks more like Wolfe. (As he would say, "Pfui.")
On another point Gramps brought up: Can you imagine how cool it would be if GKC had written a dictionary? Wow. Of course he did write an entry for the Encyclopedia Britannica...
Can you guess what it was on?
(Anybody that knows, don't post it for a bit... give the rest of us a chance to guess.)
He doesn't look too happy with his portrait, does he?
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Except for the moustache and hair colour, this is very much how I envision the famous seventh-of-a-ton-weighing detective Nero Wolfe (invented by Rex Stout). There is supposed to be some kind of secret code or hidden message or something because the vowels in his name are the same as in Sherlock Holmes by A. C. Doyle ... or is it by Shapeskeer? Or Bacon?
ReplyDelete"There are too many keys to mythology, as there are too many cryptograms in Shakespeare." [GKC TEM CW2:235]
"People actually found cryptograms in Shakespeare; but there is nothing so very cryptic about a cryptogram. It is merely a sort of spelling game, by which a rather crude and clumsy series of words can somehow be traced through the thick of much more important and intelligent and beautiful words. Mrs. Gallup thus proved in an ingenious manner that Bacon wrote Shakespeare. Father Ronald Knox thus proved, much more successfully, that Queen Victoria wrote "In Memoriam." We can prove the impossibility of a cryptogram by the existence of so many cryptograms. The more often it is done, the more impossible it is to do."
[ILN Jan 11 1936]
--Dr. Thursday
John Dickson Carr modeled his major detective, the fat and genial lexicographer Dr. Gideon Fell, on Chesterton. Pasquale Accardo gave a talk at a Chesterton conference some years ago detailing the resemblances. Carr did not try to copy Chesterton's personality, however, just his appearance.
ReplyDelete~ Gramps
Yes, that's right - I forgot. It looks like Gideon Fell, too. But the grumpy face looks more like Wolfe. (As he would say, "Pfui.")
ReplyDeleteOn another point Gramps brought up: Can you imagine how cool it would be if GKC had written a dictionary? Wow. Of course he did write an entry for the Encyclopedia Britannica...
Can you guess what it was on?
(Anybody that knows, don't post it for a bit... give the rest of us a chance to guess.)
He wrote two entries! Still, it will be fun for those who don't know to guess both, eh?
ReplyDelete~ Gramps
one was on Dickens. I don't know what the other one was on.
ReplyDeleteThe other was on "Humour."
ReplyDelete~ Gramps