- Mencken, H. L.
The Vintage Mencken.
New York: Vintage, [1955] 1990.
ISBN 978-0-679-72895-5.
-
Perhaps only once in a generation is born a person with the gift of
seeing things precisely as they are, without any prejudice or
filter of ideology, doctrine, or preconceived notions, who also
has the talent to rise to a position from which this
“fair witness” viewpoint can be effectively communicated
to a wide audience. In this category, one thinks immediately of
George Orwell
and, more recently and not yet as celebrated as
he deserves to be,
Karl Hess, but
without doubt one of the greatest exemplars of these observers
of their world to have lived in the 20th century was
H[enry] L[ouis] Mencken,
the “Sage of Baltimore” and one of the greatest
libertarian, sceptic, and satirical writers of his time, as well
as a scholar of the English language as used in the United
States.
This book, originally published during Mencken's life (although he
lived until 1956, he ceased writing after suffering a stroke in 1948
which, despite his recovering substantially, left him
unable to compose text), collects his work, mostly drawn from essays
and newspaper columns across his writing career. We get reminiscences of
the Baltimore of his youth, reportage of the convention that
nominated Franklin Roosevelt, a celebration of Grover Cleveland,
an obituary of Coolidge, a taking down of
Lincoln the dictator, a report from the Progressive convention which
nominated Henry Wallace for president in 1948, and his final column
defending those who defied a segregation law to stage
an interracial tennis tournament in Baltimore in 1948.
Many of the articles are abridged, perhaps in the interest of
eliding contemporary references which modern readers may find
obscure. This collection provides an excellent taste of Mencken
across his career and will probably leave you hungry for more. Fortunately,
most of his œuvre remains in print.
In the contemporary media cornucopia and endless blogosphere we have,
every day, many times the number of words available to read as
Mencken wrote in his career. But who is the heir to Mencken in
seeing the folly behind the noise of ephemeral headlines and stands
the test of time when read almost a century later?
October 2013 