Mencken (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Fred Hobson
- First Published: 1994
- Type of Work: Biography
- Time of Work: 1880-1956
- Setting: Baltimore, Maryland; and New York City
- Principal Characters: Henry Louis (H. L.) Mencken, Alfred A. Knopf, August Mencken, Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Marion Bloom, Sara Haardt Mencken
- Genres: Nonfiction, Biography
- Subjects: Culture, Journalism or journalists, Power, personal or social, Politics, Racism, Gay men, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Religion, 1920’s, Jews or Jewish life, Conservatism, Colleges or universities, Humorists
- Locales: New York, NY, Baltimore, MD
With the posthumous publication of the famous critic’s diary, edited by Charles A. Fecher (The Diary of H. L. Mencken, 1989), and recollections of his early friends and acquaintances (My Life as Author and Editor, 1993), the reputation of H. L. Mencken suddenly began to decline. The man whom Walter Lippmann had once called “the most powerful influence on a whole generation of educated Americans” appeared in his most private writings to be guilty of flagrant anti-Semitism, racism, and homo-phobia, as well as unrestrained hostility against Southerners and rural life in...
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