Belloc, Hilaire

Belloc, Hilaire (Joseph Hilaire Pierre Belloc) (bĕl`ŏk), 1870–1953, English author, b. France. He became a British subject in 1902, and from 1906 to 1910 was a Liberal member of Parliament for South Salford. Poet, essayist, satirist, and historian, he wrote from the Roman Catholic viewpoint. Among his works are The Bad Child's Book of Beasts (1896), The Path to Rome (1902), Marie Antoinette (1910), The Jews (1922), The Cruise of the Nona (1925), and Napoleon (1922). He was a close friend of G. K. Chesterton and with him founded the New Witness, a weekly political newspaper. Christened "the Chesterbelloc" by G. B. Shaw, the two were the inventors and propagators of distributism, a medieval, anticapitalist, and anti-Fabian socialist philosophy.

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Belloc, (Joseph-Pierre) Hilaire

(born July 27, 1870, La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France—died July 16, 1953, Guildford, Surrey, Eng.) French-born British poet, historian, Catholic apologist, and essayist. A highly versatile writer, he is best remembered for his light verse, particularly for children, and for his lucid and graceful essays. His works include Verses and Sonnets (1895), The Bad Child's Book of Beasts (1896), The Modern Traveller (1898), Mr. Burden (1904), and Cautionary Tales (1907). He also wrote several historical works, including a four-volume History of England (1925–31).

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Belloc, Hilaire 

Born July 27, 1870, in St.-Cloud, France; died July 16, 1953, in Guildford. British writer.

Belloc is the author of novels (such as Mr. Burden, 1904), sketches (such as On Nothing, 1908; On Everything, 1909; On Something, 1910), short stories, travel notes, poems, and also historical works. In Belloc’s literary works there is a powerful satirical aspect; however, his criticism of capitalistic industrialization and corruption is accompanied by attacks on socialism as well, and in his searchings for an ideal social order he turned to the Middle Ages.

WORKS

Hilaire Belloc’s Stories, Essays, and Poems. London, 1957.
Mr. Clutterbuck’s Election. London, 1908.
Danton. London, 1928.

REFERENCE

Collins, A. S. English Literature of the Twentieth Century. London, 1965.

N. P. MIKHAL’SKAIA