Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc

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TAN Books - Religion - 448 pages
Hilaire Belloc is one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. At turns reviled or revered, depending on the audience, he was a razor sharp social commenter and a master of both poetry and prose, who continues to captivate readers. In Old Thunder, Joseph Pearce examines Belloc's enduring impact on British intellectual life. 

Along the way, Pearce uncovers Belloc's relationships with Chesterton, Waugh, and Sassoon, among others. Pearce also illuminates another side of Belloc's personality by relaying his long courtship with Elodie Hogan, her brief stint in a convent, and his ultimate grief at her death. 

In this updated biography, with a new introduction by Dale Alhquist, Joseph Pearce uses previously unpublished letters and photographs to reveal in Belloc a romantic, complex, and solitary man, who is one of the true giants of the Catholic revival in the past century.
 

Contents

The Chesterbelloc
The Party System
Friends and Disciples
Love and Laughter
Religion and Politics
Farewell to Parliament
EyeWitness to Scandal
Ghostly Secrets and Mortal Wounds

Survivals and New Arrivals
Baring and Buchan
Baring and Chesterton
Romeward Bound
The South Country
Where Darkness Is
War and Other Diversions
A Private Friendship
Copyright

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About the author

Joseph Pearce is Director of the Center for Faith and Culture and Writer in Residence at Aquinas College in Nashville, Tennessee. He is a renowned biographer whose books include his autobiography, Race with the Devil: My Journey from Racial Hatred to Rational Love (Saint Benedict Press, 2013); Candles in the Dark: The Authorized Biography of Fr. Ho Lung, Missionaries of the Poor (Saint Benedict Press, 2012), Through Shakespeare's Eyes: Seeing the Catholic Presence in the Plays (Ignatius Press, 2010); and Tolkien: Man and Myth, a Literary Life (HarperCollins, 1998). He is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Higher Education from Thomas More College for the Liberal Arts and also received the Pollock Award for Christian Biography. He is co-editor of the St. Austin Review and has hosted two series on Shakespeare for EWTN, as well as hosting several EWTN productions on J. R. R. Tolkien. 

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