Nathan, George Jean
Nathan, George Jean( 1882–1958),born in Indiana, after graduation from Cornell (1904) began his career as a drama critic in New York. In 1908 he became associated with The Smart Set, of which he was co-editor (1914–23) with H.L. Mencken, with whom he then founded The American Mercury (1924), serving as an editor until 1930 and establishing himself as one of the literary arbiters of the period. With Mencken and W.H. Wright he wrote Europe After 8:15 (1914), and with Mencken he was the author of such works as Heliogabalus (1920), a satirical play, and The American Credo (1920), “a contribution toward the interpretation of the national mind,” which travesties common beliefs and attitudes. While Mencken was considered the great satirical realist of the era, Nathan formed his counterpart as a philosophical snob, cynic, and sophisticate, who adopted a pose of detachment, following the attitude of his master, Huneker, in...
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