The department houses a collection of over 1,200 first
and fine editions of the works of the English Catholic writers Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)
and G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), plus manuscript materials and ephemera.
The Chesterton-Belloc Collection originated in a gift of
slightly more than 200 Belloc volumes, which came to the library in 1984, the gift of
Special Collections Librarian Emeritus James D. Kellen.
In 1991, St. Thomas Executive Vice President for External
Affairs, Quentin J. Hietpas, class of 1953, raised funds that allowed the purchase of one
the finest collections of Chesterton material remaining in private hands in North America,
some 1,726 items in all. The Chesterton portion of the Chesterton-Belloc Collection
includes copies of nearly every book, pamphlet, periodical article, and preface or
introduction written by Chesterton, plus numerous newspaper cuttings.
The department also owns twenty-nine Belloc autograph
letters, twenty-one of which were a gift to library from Dr. Jacob Schmitt, a retired
member of the St. Thomas Education Department. These letters were written by Belloc to
Schmitt's father, the American Catholic artist and intellectual Carl Schmitt.
Chesterton and Belloc were brilliant, often humorous,
rear-guard defenders of Christian orthodoxy against the prevailing materialist
philosophies of their and the present day. Their works have enduring value to anyone
interested in an unsullied and all-encompassing Christian worldview.
For more information or assistance in your research, please
contact the Special Collections Department by electronic mail
(amkenne1@stthomas.edu), regular post (Mail 5004,
University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Ave. St, Paul, MN 55105-1096), or phone
(651-962-5467).
The Chesterton-Belloc
