Corrin, Jay P. G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc: The Battle Against Modernity. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1981. Two champions of “democratic anarchy” are juxtaposed as writers and polemicists in an exploration that illuminates both of their careers. Corrin ably demonstrates the near inseparability of intellect and theological commitment of the two allies, while offering good expositions of the histories, fiction, and poetry of the lesser-known Belloc.
Lothian, James R. The Making and Unmaking of the English Catholic Intellectual Community, 1910-1950. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009. Examines Belloc’s role in helping shape the English Catholic intellectual community and his lasting influence.
McCarthy, John Patrick. Hilaire Belloc: Edwardian Radical. Indianapolis, Ind.: Liberty Press, 1978. McCarthy’s concern is to elucidate Belloc’s career as a political conservative who opposes statism and the growing intervention of government in the private lives of individuals. This resourceful volume explains the relationship between Belloc’s politics and economics, and his poetics, while offering an apologia for reading Belloc in the present.
Markel, Michael H. Hilaire Belloc. Boston: Twayne, 1982. Markel provides a sympathetic overview of Belloc’s life and a mostly thorough exposition of his major and minor works. This source is the best starting place for gaining a sense of the breadth of Belloc’s writing career and political commitments. Markel’s bibliography of primary and secondary sources is succinct, but valuable.
Pearce, Joseph. Literary Giants, Literary Catholics. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005. G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc are treated in the first part of this work on Catholic writers in England.
_______. Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002. A biography of Belloc, nicknamed Old Thunder by his mother at birth, that describes a complicated individual. Pearce used previously unavailable manuscripts and photographs in the making of this work and had the help of Belloc’s grandchildren.
Wilson, A. N. Hilaire Belloc. New York: Atheneum, 1984. A renowned novelist and biographer, Wilson provides researchers with an impeccable source of critical biographical material. Using previously unavailable Belloc letters and manuscripts, Wilson places Belloc and his writing within his historical milieu with affection and candor, refusing to ignore the darker side of Belloc’s sympathies with the anti-Semitism of the 1930’s and 1940’s.