Belloc, Hilaire (Joseph Hilaire Pierre Belloc), 1870-1953, English author, b. France. He became a British subject in 1902, and from 1906 to 1910 was a Liberal member of Parliament for South Salford. Poet, essayist, satirist, and historian, he wrote from the Roman Catholic viewpoint. Among his works are The Bad Child's Book of Beasts (1896), The Path to Rome (1902), Marie Antoinette (1910), The Jews (1922), The Cruise of the Nona (1925), and Napoleon (1922). He was a close friend of G. K. Chesterton and with him founded the New Witness, a weekly political newspaper. Christened "the Chesterbelloc" by G. B. Shaw, the two were the inventors and propagators of distributism, a medieval, anticapitalist, and anti-Fabian socialist philosophy.

(born July 27, 1870, La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France—died July 16, 1953, Guildford, Surrey, Eng.) French-born British poet, historian, Catholic apologist, and essayist. A highly versatile writer, he is best remembered for his light verse, particularly for children, and for his lucid and graceful essays. His works include Verses and Sonnets (1895), The Bad Child's Book of Beasts (1896), The Modern Traveller (1898), Mr. Burden (1904), and Cautionary Tales (1907). He also wrote several historical works, including a four-volume History of England (1925–31).

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Belloc is a commune in the Ariège department of southwestern France.

See also

• Château de Lasserre, 14th-century castle