William Richard Titterton (1876–1963) was a British journalist, writer and poet now remembered as the friend and first biographer of G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....

. Titterton and Chesterton met on the London Daily News.

Early life

In his younger days he wrote copiously for A. R. Orage's The New Age. He was the model for some of Jacob Epstein

Jacob Epstein

Sir Jacob Epstein KBE was an American-born British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British citizen in 1911. He often produced controversial works which challenged taboos on what was appropriate subject matter...

's nude sculptures; he modelled too for George Grey Barnard

George Grey Barnard

'George Grey Barnard was an American sculptor, "an excellent American sculptor", the French art dealer René Gimpel reported in his diary , "very much engrossed in carving himself a fortune out of the trade in works of art." His lasting monument, rather than any sculpture of his own, is the...

, for the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...

 courthouse.

The Weekly and the League

Titterton was in practical terms the organiser of Chesterton's Distributist League, and sub-editor of G. K.'s Weekly

G. K.'s Weekly

G. K.'s Weekly was a British publication founded in 1925 by G. K. Chesterton, continuing until his death in 1936. It contained much of his later journalism, and extracts from it were published as The Outline of Sanity....

.

There were financial problems, and embarrassment caused by Titterton's commissioning of articles on H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...

 by the lesser writer Edwin Pugh; Pugh's articles had a hostile edge and Chesterton had to pacify Wells. His position on the Weekly came to an end in 1928, when he was replaced by Edward Macdonald, in a temporarily acrimonious situation, leading to the separation of the Weekly and the League.

Under Chesterton's influence, he became a Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

convert in 1931.

Works

• River Music and other poems (1900)
• Love Poems (New Age Press, c 1908)
• An Afternoon Tea Philosophy (1910)
• The Drifters (1910)
• Me As A Model (1914)
• London Scenes (1918)
• Guns and Guitars (1918) poems
• Drinking Songs and other songs (1928)
• A Candle to the Stars (1932) interviews
• G. K. Chesterton: A Portrait (1936) biography, Online text (PDF)
• Poems for the Forces (1943)
• London Pride (1944)
• So this is Shaw (1945) biography
• Poems: A Backward Glance (1959)