Belloc, Hilaire, << BEHL uhk, hih LAIR >> (1870-1953), was a British novelist, essayist, historian, and poet. His many books and essays reflect his political conservatism and devotion to the Roman Catholic Church. Today, his reputation rests mostly on his light verses for children, including The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts (1896) and Cautionary Tales (1907), and for his travel memoir, The Path to Rome (1902).
Belloc was born on July 27, 1870, in St. Cloud, a suburb of Paris. His full name was Joseph Hilaire Pierre Belloc. He grew up in England, became a British citizen in 1903, and served as a member of Parliament from 1906 to 1910. He withdrew from politics in 1911 to write and publish political articles. Belloc and his friend G. K. Chesterton, also an English writer, edited a weekly political newspaper in which they promoted their Catholic beliefs and conservative ideas, with an emphasis on economic reform. Much of Belloc’s later work was designed to correct what he felt was an overly Protestant slant in the writing of British history. These works include the biographies Charles I, king of England (1933) and Elizabeth: Creature of Circumstance (1942). Belloc died on July 16, 1953.
