GKC in "The Catholic Worker"

Chesterton first drew attention as a reviewer, so it’s appropriate that he shows up in a review.

The August-September issue of The Catholic Worker contains a review of Look Homeward, America: In Search of reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists by Bill Kauffman.

The review begins, "G. K. Chesterton once observed: `I think the first thing that made me dislike imperialism was the statement that the sun never sets on the British Country. What good is a country with no sunset?'"

That quote alone made me read the rest of the review.

I discovered that Kauffman is a local boy (from nearby Batavia, N.Y.).

I also discovered that Kauffman has apperently been influenced by Chestertonian ideas.

The reviewer notes that in a chapter on Senator Eugene McCarthy the late Senator is described as a "gentleman steeped in the Roman Catholic faith, the social teachings of the Church, and the distributism of G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc."

Imagine that, a presidential candidate steeped in distributism! No wonder I liked him.

One chapter is even called "The Way of Love: The American Distributism of Dorothy Day."

Definitely interesting!

The book apparently contains a series of essays about people like Day, McCarthy, Wedell Berry, Grant Wood, and more.

This is one book I’ll be looking for in local bookstores.

Maybe I can find a locally owned store that has it.

I think GKC would appreciate that.