Signed Autograph Manuscript testimonial ('Philip Gibbs') on behalf of G. K. Chesterton's candidacy for the Rectorship of the University of Glasgow.

Author: 
Sir Philip Gibbs [Sir Philip Armand Hamilton Gibbs] (1877-1962), writer and journalist [G. K. Chesterton; Glasgow University]
Publication details: 
Undated [1925].
£45.00
SKU: 8066

8vo: 2 pp. Fifty lines. Text clear and complete, on two pieces of aged and spotted paper, with rust spots from paperclip. Untitled. Begins: 'I should like to see Chesterton as Lord Rector of a university which stands for Liberal thought. Some people, limited in imagination and hostile to unconventional character, would as soon give their votes to a modern Don Quixote who by some miracle has acquired the corporeal structure of his own Sancho Panza. Chesterton indeed has many of the virtues and some of the simplicity of that chivalrous knight, though with spendid serenity he laughs at himself and the great jests of life. Like the Knight of La Mancha he loves honour, and truth, and justice and is ever ready to attack cruelty and the powers of darkness.' More in this vein. Chesterton 'wears no political label, as far as I know, for there is no such label big enough to span his waistcoat or to confine his beard. But his spirit is part of our heritage of liberal thought, [...] He is a great gentleman as well as a great writer [...]'. Concludes 'I envy the undergraduate who belongs to a University enlivened by the language and guided by the philosophy of "G.K.C." ' From the papers of J. Gordon Murdoch, who campaigned on behalf of Chesterton, who, despite such endorsements, lost the election to Sir Austen Chamberlain.