“What can one be but frivolous about serious things? Without frivolity they are simply too tremendous.” The life of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, like all lives, should not be summarized in a single word. Still, one asserts itself everywhere in his biographies: enormous. “He was close to 400 pounds,” noted one chauffeur, in whose car door Chesterton was once stuck, “but he’d never give it away.” Chesterton took