H L Mencken Popular Books
H L Mencken Biography & Facts
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes Trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also gained him attention. The term Menckenian has entered multiple dictionaries to describe anything of or pertaining to Mencken, including his combative rhetorical and prose style. As a scholar, Mencken is known for The American Language, a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States. As an admirer of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, he was an outspoken opponent of organized religion, theism, censorship, populism, and representative democracy, the last of which he viewed as a system in which inferior men dominated their superiors. Mencken was a supporter of scientific progress and was critical of osteopathy and chiropractic. He was also an open critic of economics. Mencken opposed the American entry into World War I and World War II. Some of the opinions in his private diary entries have been described by some researchers as racist and antisemitic, although this characterization has been disputed. Larry S. Gibson argued that Mencken's views on race changed significantly between his early and later private writings which started when he was 50, and that it was more accurate to describe Mencken as elitist rather than racist. He seemed to show a genuine enthusiasm for militarism but never in its American form. "War is a good thing," he wrote, "because it is honest; it admits the central fact of human nature... A nation too long at peace becomes a sort of gigantic old maid." His longtime home in the Union Square neighborhood of West Baltimore was turned into a city museum, the H. L. Mencken House. His papers were distributed among various city and university libraries, with the largest collection held in the Mencken Room at the central branch of Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library. Early life and education Mencken was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 12, 1880. He was the son of Anna Margaret (Abhau) and August Mencken Sr., a cigar factory owner. He was of German ancestry and spoke German in his childhood. When Henry was three, his family moved into a new home at 1524 Hollins Street facing Union Square park in the Union Square neighborhood of old West Baltimore. Apart from five years of married life, Mencken was to live in that house for the rest of his life. In his bestselling memoir Happy Days, he described his childhood in Baltimore as "placid, secure, uneventful and happy". When he was nine years old, he read Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, which he later described as "the most stupendous event in my life". He became determined to become a writer and read voraciously. In one winter while in high school he read William Makepeace Thackeray and then "proceeded backward to Addison, Steele, Pope, Swift, Johnson and the other magnificos of the Eighteenth century". He read the entire canon of Shakespeare and became an ardent fan of Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Huxley. As a boy, Mencken also had practical interests, photography and chemistry in particular, and eventually had a home chemistry laboratory in which he performed experiments of his own design, some of them inadvertently dangerous. He began his primary education in the mid-1880s at Professor Knapp's School on the east side of Holliday Street between East Lexington and Fayette Streets, next to the Holliday Street Theatre and across from the newly constructed Baltimore City Hall. The site today is the War Memorial and City Hall Plaza laid out in 1926 in memory of World War I dead. At 15, in June 1896, he graduated as valedictorian from the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, at the time a males-only mathematics, technical and science-oriented public high school. He worked for three years in his father's cigar factory. He disliked the work, especially the sales aspect of it, and resolved to leave, with or without his father's blessing. In early 1898 he took a writing class at the Cosmopolitan University, a free correspondence school. This was to be the entirety of Mencken's formal post-secondary education in journalism, or in any other subject. Upon his father's death a few days after Christmas in the same year, the business passed to his uncle, and Mencken was free to pursue his career in journalism. He applied in February 1899 to the Morning Herald newspaper (which became the Baltimore Morning Herald in 1900) and was hired part-time, but still kept his position at the factory for a few months. In June he was hired as a full-time reporter. Career Mencken served as a reporter at the Herald for six years. Less than two-and-a-half years after the Great Baltimore Fire, the paper was purchased in June 1906 by Charles H. Grasty, the owner and editor of The News since 1892 and competing owner and publisher Gen. Felix Agnus, of the town's oldest (since 1773) and largest daily, The Baltimore American. They proceeded to divide the staff, assets and resources of The Herald between them. Mencken then moved to The Baltimore Sun, where he worked for Charles H. Grasty. He continued to contribute to The Sun, The Evening Sun (founded 1910) and The Sunday Sun full-time until 1948, when he stopped writing after suffering a stroke. Mencken began writing the editorials and opinion pieces that made his name at The Sun. On the side, he wrote short stories, a novel, and even poetry, which he later revealed. In 1908, he became a literary critic for The Smart Set magazine, and in 1924 he and George Jean Nathan founded and edited The American Mercury, published by Alfred A. Knopf. It soon developed a national circulation and became highly influential on college campuses across America. In 1933, Mencken resigned as editor. Personal life Marriage On August 27, 1930, Mencken married Sara Haardt, a German American professor of English at Goucher College in Baltimore and an author eighteen years his junior. Haardt had led an unsuccessful effort in Alabama to ratify the 19th Amendment. The two met in 1923, after Mencken delivered a lecture at Goucher; a seven-year courtship ensued. The marriage made national headlines, and many were surprised that Mencken, who once called marriage "the end of hope" and who was well known for mocking relations between the sexes, had gone to the altar. "The Holy Spirit informed and inspired me," Mencken said. "Like all other infidels, I am superstitious and always follow hunches: this one seemed to be a superb one." Even more startling, he was marrying an Alabama native, despite his having written scathing essays about the American South. Haardt was in poor health from tuberculosis throughout their marriage and died in 1935 of meningitis, leaving Mencken grief-stricken. He had always championed her writing and, afte.... Discover the H L Mencken popular books. Find the top 100 most popular H L Mencken books.
Best Seller H L Mencken Books of 2024
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Second Mencken Chrestomathy
H.L. MenckenBefore there was any such thing as political correctness, H. L. Mencken was flouting it. He was also cheerfully deriding the precursors of family values and lambasting the guardi...
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Diary of H. L. Mencken
H.L. MenckenH. L. Mencken's diary was, at his own request, kept sealed in the vaults of Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Library for a quarter of a century after his death. The diary covers the years 1...
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H.L. Mencken
S. T. JoshiBaltimore native Henry Louis Mencken (18801956) was an essayist, literary critic, magazine editor, novelist, and journalist. Starting as a reporter for the Baltimore Morning Herald...
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Book Repair and Restoration
Mitchell S. BuckThis manual contain suggestions partly gathered from the experience of others and partly evolved for myself in caring for my own books. Although many "books about books" ha...
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The Troll Garden and Selected Stories
Willa Cather“The Troll Garden And Selected Stories” is a 1905 collection of short stories by American writer Willa Cather. They include: “On The Divide”, “Eric Hermannson's Soul”, “The Enchan...
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Youth and the Bright Medusa
Willa Cather“Youth and the Bright Medusa” is a 1920 collection of short stories by Willa Cather. The stories include: "Coming, Aphrodite!", "The Diamond Mine", "A Gold Slipper", "Scandal", "Pa...
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The Sage in Harlem
Charles ScruggsThe Sage in Harlem establishes H. L. Mencken as a catalyst for the blossoming of black literary culture in the 1920s and chronicles the intensely productive exchange of ideas betwe...
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The Collected Drama of H. L. Mencken
S. T. JoshiThroughout his career as a literary critic, H. L. Mencken was intent on elevating the bold, the daring, and the innovative over the hackneyed, the trite, and the superficial, and h...
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Last Call
Daniel OkrentA brilliant, authoritative, and fascinating history of America’s most puzzling era, the years 1920 to 1933, when the U.S. Constitution was amended to restrict one of America’s favo...
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Treatise on the Gods
H.L. Mencken"I am quite convinced that all religions, at bottom, are pretty much alike. On the surface they may seem to differ greatly, but what appears on the surface is not always religion...
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Serpent in Eden
Fred C. HobsonThe appearance in 1920 of H. L. Mencken's scathing essay about the intellectual and cultural impoverishment of the South, "The Sahara of the Bozart", set off a firestorm of reactio...
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H.L. Mencken
Burton RascoePublished midway through Mencken's career, this book contains two essays praising the author and a bibliography of his works circa 1920.
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The Bit Between My Teeth
Edmund WilsonThe Bit Between My Teeth: A Literary Chronicle of 19501965 collects Edmund Wilson's masterful essays written during a fifteen year span.Originally published in leading periodicals ...
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The Twenties
Edmund WilsonIn these pages, The Twenties: From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period, the preeminent literary critic Edmund Wilson gives us perhaps the largest authentic document of the time, th...
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A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays
Willa CatherThis vintage book contains short stories, essays, articles and others writings by American author Willa Cather. Contents include: “On The Divide”, “Eric Hermannson’s Soul”, “The Se...
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The Life and Riotous Times of H.L. Mencken
William Manchester“Written with verve, intellectual sophistication, and a prickly wit worthy of its eminent subject. . . . A firstclass piece of literate entertainment” (The New Yorke...
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An Infuriating American
Hal CrowtherAs American journalism shapeshifts into multimedia pandemonium and seems to diminish rapidly in influence and integrity, the controversial career of H. L. Mencken, the most powerfu...
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Heathen Days
H.L. MenckenIn the third volume of his autobiography, H. L. Mencken looks back on his life and declares it "very busy and excessively pleasant." He imparts the impressive education he receiv...
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A Lost Lady
Willa Cather CatherFrom one of the greatest minds of twentiethcentury American literature, Willa Cather’s A Lost Lady follows the steady downfall of a popular socialite, mirroring the decline of the ...
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Minority Report
H.L. MenckenIn the fall of 1948 H. L. Mencken, then at the top of his unmatchable form (he had spoken at a meeting of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia only a little while bef...
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My Life as Author and Editor
H.L. MenckenH. L. Mencken stipulated that this memoir remain sealed in a vault for thirtyfive years after his death. For good reason: My Life as Author and Editor is so telling and uproariousl...
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Happy Days
H.L. MenckenThough best known for his caustic newspaper columns, H. L. Mencken's most enduring contribution to American literature may be his autobiographical writings, most of which first a...
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H. L. Mencken - Premium Collection
George Jean Nathan & H. L. Menckeneartnow presents to you this meticulously edited H. L. Mencken collection: The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche A Book of Burlesques A Book of Prefaces In Defense of Women Damn! A...
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Damning Words
D. G. HartRecounts a famously outspoken agnostic's surprising relationship with Christianity H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) was a reporter, literary critic, editor, authorand a famous American ag...
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The Collected Works of H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken & George Jean Nathaneartnow presents to you this meticulously edited H. L. Mencken collection: The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche A Book of Burlesques A Book of Prefaces In Defense of Women Damn! ...
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The Trial of the Century
Gregg Jarrett & Don YaegerNATIONAL BESTSELLERA gripping and comprehensive history of the iconic attorney Clarence Darrow and the famous Scopes Monkey Trial, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ...
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H. L. Mencken - Premium Collection
H. L. Mencken & George Jean NathanMusaicum Books presents to you this meticulously edited H. L. Mencken collection: The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche A Book of Burlesques A Book of Prefaces In Defense of Women ...
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Newspaper Days
H.L. MenckenThe period covered is that of his professional nonagefrom his entry into journalism as a reporter for the Baltimore Morning Herald in 1899 to 1906. It was not all Baltimore, howeve...
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The Life of Samuel Johnson
James Boswell & Claude RawsonOne of the greatest and most compelling of all biographies in literature had its beginnings on a fateful day in London in 1763, when young James Boswell determinedly attached himse...
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One of Ours
Willa Cather CatherWilla Cather’s profound Pulitzer Prizewinning novel is an almost serene World War I story. One of Ours captures the inner depths of ordinary people and delves into their everyday t...
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The Antichrist
Friedrich NietzscheNietzsche's famous attack upon established Christianity and religion is brought to the reader in this superb edition of The Antichrist, introduced and translated by H.L. Mencken. T...
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What This Comedian Said Will Shock You
Bill MaherThe hilarious and controversial host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher has written his funniest, most opinionated, and most necessary book evera brilliantly astute and acerbically...
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H. L. Mencken
Vincent O'SullivanOne of Dreiser's strongest champions during his lifetime was H. L. Mencken. At one time, Mencken declared that Dreiser was a great artist, and that no other American of his gen...
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My Mortal Enemy
Willa Cather CatherWilla Cather’s darkest and most dramatic work, My Mortal Enemy is an agonisingly honest examination of marriage, love, and the evolution of a single person’s life.This 1926 novella...
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Mencken Chrestomathy
H.L. MenckenEdited and annotated by H.L.M., this is a selection from his outofprint writings. They come mostly from booksthe six installments of the Prejudices series, A Book of Burlesques, In...
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The Song of the Lark
Willa CatherFirst published in 1915, The Song of the Lark is a novel by American author Willa Cather. The second book of her Great Plains trilogy, it is the sequel to O Pioneers! (1913) and p...
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American Credo, A Contribution Toward the Interpretation of the National Mind
H.L. MenckenAccording to Wikipedia: "Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken (1880 – 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and...
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Christmas at The New Yorker
The New Yorker, E. B. White, Sally Benson & S.J. PerelmanFrom the pages of America’s most influential magazine come eight decades of holiday cheerplus the occasional comical coal in the stockingin one incomparable collection. Sublime an...