Mencken: A LifeWhen H. L. Mencken died in 1956, he left behind well-ordered diaries, letters, and personal papers that biographer Fred Hobson has collected in the definitive portrait of a complex and colorful life. In Mencken: A Life, Hobson quotes liberally from Mencken's writings on every subject, from Americans ("the most timorous, sniveling, poltroonish, ignominious mob of serfs and goose-steppers ever gathered under one flag") to the English ("England gave us Puritanism, Germany gave us Pilsner"), from his thoughts on Jews (both "the most unpleasant race ever heard of" and "the chief dreamers of the human race, and beyond all comparison its greatest poets") to Puritanism ("that haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy"). Along with Mencken's well-known literary slashings at the "boobsoisie" -- with his trademark political "incorrectitude" -- Hobson's access to thousands of pages of personal manuscripts allows a broad and thoughtful look at the demons and affections of the personal life of the Sage of Baltimore. The result is a picture that would satisfy even its subject's critical eye. "A beautifully crafted, thoroughly entertaining and intellectually unsentimental book that even Mencken might find met his standards." -- Jack W. Germond, The Baltimore Sun "Mencken is a comprehensive yet bracingly readable effort that will delight readers as a cold glass of pilsner would have refreshed its subject on a summer's day." -- Martin F. Nolan, The Boston Globe |
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Abhau Aileen Aileen Pringle American Angoff April August Mencken author's interview Baltimore Baltimore Morning Herald Cheslock correspondence D-M Letters December Dreiser early Edgar Kemler editor Ellery Sedgwick Enoch Pratt Free EPFL Ernest Boyd Estelle fact February felt German Gertrude Goodman H. L. Mencken Hamilton Owens Harry Heathen Days Hergesheimer HLM clippings scrapbook HLM to AAK HLM to Ernest HLM to FHG HLM to GM HLM to JH HLM to MB HLM to PG HLM to TD Hollins Street illness file January Jews Jim Tully July June Knopf late literary March Marion Bloom Max Brödel MB to EB Mencke Mencken later wrote Mencken wrote Menckeniana Mercury Nathan newspaper Nietzsche notes November NYPL occasion October Oscar Levy passim Paul Patterson Pratt Free Library Prejudices Review Sara September Smart Set SNC diary story summer Sunpapers Thirty-Five trip Wagley William Manchester writing written York