H.L. Mencken [1880-1956] Page at Spirit of America Bookstore

H.L. Mencken was a journalist, satirist, critic, and a cynic and freethinker
known as the "Sage of Baltimore" and "the Voltaire of his time".

Henry Louis Mencken was born in Baltimore, Maryland on 12 September 1880. He was a reporter for the Baltimore Morning Herald from 1899, and became editor in 1905; in 1906, he moved to the Baltimore Sun. He reported for the Evening Sun as a war correspondent in Germany during 1916-17. He developed a wide-ranging reputation also writing fiction, non-fiction & poetry, and began writing essays for The Smart Set Magazine from 1908, becoming co-editor with George Jean Nathan. In 1924, he and Nathan co-founded The American Mercury Magazine (edited by Mencken & published by Alfred A. Knopf); Mencken left in 1933; Knopf pulled out in 1934; the magazine endured until 1981 (and was revived online in 2010). Mencken was a mentor to many reporters and authors over the years, including John Fante [1909-83] and Alistair Cooke.

Mencken is considered a libertarian, an outspoken defender of Constitutional freedoms, and a fierce opponent of persecution, injustice, puritanism, and self-righteousness (while his views were sometimes tainted with racism, anti-Semitism, and 'elitism'). His literary & political wit was superb, and he is revered as a cynic & curmudgeon on a par with Mark Twain.

Mencken surprised everyone by marrying in 1930; Sara Haardt Mencken had health problems and died in 1937 of tuberculosis. A 1948 cerebral thrombosis left Mencken aware and fully conscious but unable to read or write, effectively ending his literary career. He died on 29 January 1956 at the age of seventy-five, at the house in Baltimore where he lived for 67 years.
He had suggested his epitaph earlier in The Smart Set, which was inscribed on a plaque in the lobby of The Baltimore Sun: "If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner, and wink your eye at some homely girl."

"Disturber of The Peace;: The Life of H.L. Mencken" [1951] by William Manchester
http://www.amazon.com/Disturber-peace-life-H-L-Mencken/dp/B0007F0R42/

"H.L. Mencken: A Portrait From Memory" [1956] by Charles Angoff
http://www.amazon.com/H-L-Mencken-Portrait-From-Memory/dp/B0006D7YPK/

"American Writers II: The 20th Century" live program broadcast from Union Square Park and
Mr. Mencken’s house in Baltimore, MD [aired April 2002]

"Inside Job" [6/2005 novel] by Connie Willis
http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Job-Connie-Willis/dp/1596060247/

"Inherit The Wind" Broadway play & feature film
The E.K. Hornbeck reporter character was modeled on H.L. Mencken's real-life participation in the
Scopes vs. State of Kentucky 'monkey trial' of 1925, the first U.S. trial broadcast on national radio.

1965 NBC tv movie starring Melvyn Douglas & Ed Begley: full credits from IMDb
1988 NBC tv movie starring Kirk Douglas, Jason Robards & Darren McGavin: full credits from IMDb
1999 MGM/Showtime tv movie starring Jack Lemmon, George C. Scott & Beau Bridges: full credits from IMDb

Because so much of H.L. Mencken's writings were short articles and reviews and other opinion pieces,
this section is split in twain: larger books written directly by Mencken, and later collections edited by others.

"George Bernard Shaw: His Plays" [1905] by Henry L. Mencken 1880-1956
http://archive.org/details/cu31924012968198

"A Book of Prefaces" [Knopf 1917]
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Prefaces-H-L-Mencken/dp/1557429855/
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19355

"Notes On Democracy" [1926] by H.L. Mencken
http://www.amazon.com/Notes-On-Democracy-ebook/dp/B004TGNNC8/

Minority Report (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf) by H. L. Mencken
http://www.amazon.com/Minority-Report-Maryland-Paperback-Bookshelf/dp/0801856582/

The Diary of H.L. Mencken by H. L. Mencken
http://www.amazon.com/Diary-H-L-Mencken-ebook/dp/B006YYOG1K/
http://www.amazon.com/The-Diary-H-L-Mencken/dp/039456877X/

On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf) by H. L. Mencken
http://www.amazon.com/On-Politics-Carnival-Paperback-Bookshelf/dp/0801853427/

"Camille: The Fate of A Coquette" silent short [1926; DVD 2004]
Described as a home movie, with crew credits incomplete; produced & directed by Ralph Barton; bilingual intertitles (English & French); actors include Anita Loos (as Camille), Sherwood Anderson, Ethel Barrymore, Richard Barthelmess, Charlie Chaplin, Clarence Darrow, Lili Darvas, Theodore Dreiser, Dorothy Gish, Sacha Guitry, Rex Ingram, Serge Kousevitzky, Alfred Knopf, Georges Lepape, Sinclair Lewis, W. Somerset Maugham, H.L. Mencken, Ferenc Molnár, George Jean Nathan, Chauncey Olcott, Aileen Pringle, Yvonne Printemps, Max Reinhardt, Paul Robeson, and Charles G. Shaw • incomplete credits from IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia • watch the film [7/2014 upload; 31:00] online at YouTube
also available on 2-disk "Chaplin Collection Volume 1: A King In New York and A Woman In Paris"
Warner Home Video b&w DVD [3/2004] out of prodn/used

The American Scene: A Reader by H. L. Mencken (Apr 12, 1982)
http://www.amazon.com/The-American-Scene-A-Reader/dp/0394752147/

"Mencken on Mencken: A New Collection of Autobiographical Writings" [Mar 2010]
by H. L. Mencken and S. T. Joshi ()
http://www.amazon.com/Mencken-Collection-Autobiographical-Writings-ebook/dp/B004P8IWQM/
http://www.amazon.com/Mencken-New-Collection-Autobiographical-Writings/dp/0807135925/

Do You Remember?: The Whimsical Letters of H. L. Mencken and Philip Goodman by H. L. Mencken
http://www.amazon.com/Do-You-Remember-Whimsical-Letters/dp/0938420542/

In Defense of Marion: The Love of Marion Bloom & H.L. Mencken by H. L. Mencken
http://www.amazon.com/In-Defense-Marion-Bloom-Mencken/dp/0820317675/ref=cm_lmf_tit_17

Deadline Artists / Newspaper Columns book edited by Avlon, Angelo & Louis

"Deadline Artists: America's Greatest Newspaper Columns" [2011]
Edited by John P. Avlon, Jesse Angelo & Errol Louis
Overlook 9x6 hardcover [9/2011] for $18.61
Historical and current writers covered include: Mitch Albom, Russell Baker, Mike Barnicle, Dave Barry, Ambrose Bierce, Thomas Boswell, Jimmy Breslin, David Brooks, Heywood Broun, Art Buchwald, William F. Buckley, Jimmy Cannon, Richard Harding Davis, Pete Dexter, Maureen Dowd, Fanny Fern, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas L. Friedman, Woody Guthrie, Pete Hamill, Ben Hecht, W.C. Heinz, Ernest Hemingway, Bob Herbert, Carl Hiaasen, Langston Hughes, Murray Kempton, Michael Kinsley, Tony Kornheiser, Steve Lopez, H.L. Mencken, Jack Newfield, Peggy Noonan, Kathleen Parker, Westbrook Pegler, Leonard Pitts, Ernie Pyle, Anna Quindlen, Grantland Rice, Will Rogers, Theodore Roosevelt, Mike Royko, Damon Runyon, Red Smith, Dorothy Thompson, Hunter S. Thompson, Cynthia Tucker, Mark Twain, Orson Welles & George Will

"Pistols for Two" [Knopf, 1917] by Owen Hatteras
a combined biography of the two editors of "The Smart Set"
http://www.amazon.com/Pistols-Two-Owen-Hatteras/dp/1110572786/ http://archive.org/details/pistolsfortwo00mencrich

"The Smart Set Anthology" [Reynal & Hitchcock, 1934] Edited by Burton Rascoe & Groff Conklin

"H.L. Mencken's Smart Set Criticism" [Cornell Univ Press, 1968] by William H. Nolte
http://www.amazon.com/H-L-Menckens-Smart-Set-Criticism/dp/0895262312/

"The Smart Set: George Jean Nathan and H.L. Mencken" [2/2000] by Thomas Quinn Curtiss
http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Set-George-Nathan-Mencken/dp/1557833125/

Mencken and Nathan began the pulp magazine The Parisienne in 1915 to publish good stories that were below the snooty standards of The Smart Set; they made their profit and then sold it to publishers Warner and Crowe in 1916. They repeated that same process with Saucy Stories [1916-1936?] and The Black Mask [1920-51].

'The American Mercury' Magazine [1924-1981]
In 1923, Alfred A. Knopf started publishing periodicals, beginning with "The American Mercury", founded by
H.L. Mencken & George Jean Nathan, which Knopf published through 1934.

wife Sara Haardt Mencken [1898-1935] married 1930, died in 1935
a collection of her short stories published under the title "Southern Album" []
"Mencken and Sara: A Life In Letters" [McGraw-Hill 1987] Edited by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers
http://www.amazon.com/Mencken-Sara-Letters-Private-Correspondence/dp/0070415056/

business partner George Jean Nathan [1882-1958]
"The World of George Jean Nathan" [] by George Jean Nathan (Feb 1, 2000)
http://www.amazon.com/The-World-George-Jean-Nathan/dp/1557833133/

when in New York City, H.L. Mencken would often meet Edgar Lee Masters at Jack Dempsey's Restaurant,
344 W. 46th Street, for several praiseworthy mint julips at a dollar each {"and well worth it"}

authors discovered and-or mentored while Mencken was editor of The American Mercury
James M. Cain [1892-1977]

	"The Constant Circle: H. L. Mencken & His Friends" [1968] by Sara Mayfield Fire Ant 9½x5½ pb [7/2003] for $25.00 Delacorte hardcover [1/68] out of print/used
	"The H.L. Mencken Murder Case" [1988] by Don Swaim Set circa 1948; when a bookstore employee is murdered, apparently over an 18th Century manuscript, the reclusive bookstore owner brings his father's friend 'Harry' into helping prevent further mayhem. St. Martin hardcover [10/88] out of print/used
	"John Fante and H.L. Mencken: A Personal Correspondence, 1930-1952" [1989] Edited by Michael Moreau & Joyce Fante Black Sparrow Press pb [1/89] out of print/used Black Sparrow hardcover [8/89] out of print/used
	"Mencken: A Life" [1994] by Fred Hobson Johns Hopkins Univ Press 9½x6¼ pb [11/95] for $22.95 Random House 9½x6¾ hardcover [5/94] out of print/used
	"Our Man In Washington" [2000] by Roy Hoopes A mystery novel by Cain biographer Hoopes, about real-life pals James M. Cain and journalist H.L. Mencken in the 1920s. Forge pb [10/2001] out of print/used Forge hardcover [9/2000] out of print/used
	"Good Night Valentino" [short film 2003] Based on a report by H.L. Mencken in the Baltimore Sun about an actual conversation over dinner with Rudolph Valentino [1895-1926], who sought advice in handling the slander blaming Valentino's movie career for 'emasculating the American male' • Produced, co-written & directed by Edoardo Ballerini; co-written by John Rothman; starring Edoardo Ballerini {as Valentino}, John Rothman {as Mencken} & Blaire Chandler DVD/Blu-ray not available • full credits at IMDb
	"The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken" [2002] by Terry Teachout Harper Perennial 8x5¼ pb [11/2003] for $10.85 HarperCollins 8¾x7 hardcover [11/2002] out of print/used
	"Mencken: The American Iconoclast - The Life & Times of The Bad Boy of Baltimore" [2005] by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers Oxford Univ Press 8¾x5¾ pb [8/2007] for $25.00 Oxford Univ Press 9¼x6¾ hardcover [11/2005] for $11.85
	"Alleged" feature film [indep 2010] An ambitious young reporter is frustrated by life in backwater Dayton, Tennessee; when the 1925 'Scopes Monkey Trial' arrives in the town, he gets the break of a lifetime as the eager protégé of nationally-famous journalist H.L. Mencken • Directed by Tom Hines; starring Nathan West, Colm Meaney {as H.L. Mencken}, Brian Dennehy {as Clarence Darrow}, Fred Dalton Thompson {as Wm. Jennings Bryan}, Ashley Johnson, J.R. Bourne, Jamie Kolacki {as John Scopes} & Khori Faison Image Ent. widescreen color Blu-ray [11/2011] for $26.99 Image Ent. widescreen color DVD [11/2011] for $10.49 full credits at IMDb • official movie site

	"The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche" [1907] by Henry L. Mencken Kindle Edition from Evergreen Review [1/2008] for $4.95 See Sharp Press 9x6 pb [6/2003] for $9.95 Kessinger Publng 9x6 hardcover [7/2007] for $33.54 see also Maison d'Être Philosophy Bookstore's Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900] Page
	"The Gist of Nietzsche" [1910] 'arranged by' Henry L. Mencken Nabu Press 9½x7½ pb [1/2010] for $13.85 John W. Luce & Co. hardcover [1910] out of print/used available as free online etext at Archive.org see also Maison d'Être Philosophy Bookstore's Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900] Page
	"The Artist: A Drama Without Words" stageplay [John W. Luce, 1912] by H.L. Mencken Univ California Libraries pb [8/00] for $9.99 hardcover [8/00] for $0.00 out of print/used playscript available as free online etext at Internet Archive
	"Europe After 8:15" [John Lane Co. 1914] by H.L. Mencken, George Jean Nathan & Willard Huntington Wright (S.S. Van Dine), 'with decorations by' Thomas Hart Benton Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [undated] for FREE {sic} Univ California Libraries 8x5 pb [1914 facsimile edition] for $17.99 Dodo Press 9x6 pb [6/2007] for $12.99 available as free online etext at Project Gutenberg larger view of Thomas Hart Benton 'Berlin' drawing at left {in new window}

	"The Anti-Christ: Curse On Christianity" [1888] by Friedrich W. Nietzsche translated with an Introduction by H.L. Mencken [Knopf 1918] Kindle Edition Mencken trxln from Amazon Digital [3/2011] for FREE {sic} Kindle 'modernized' Mencken trxln from Amazon Digital [undated] for 99¢ {sic} Wilder Publns Mencken trxln 9x6 pb [12/2008] for $4.95 Wilder Publns Mencken trxln 9x6 hardcover [4/2008] for $19.99 Wildside Press unknown trxln 9¼x6¼ hardcover [6/2005] for $24.95 available as free online etext at Project Gutenberg
	"The American Language" [1919 classic] by H.L. Mencken Knopf 9½x6¾ 4th edition hardcover [6/36] for $37.80
	"The American Credo: A Contribution Toward The Interpretation of The National Mind" [Knopf 1920] by George Jean Nathan & H.L. Mencken Kindle Edition from Library of Alexandria [2003 edition] for $2.99 {sic} BiblioLife 8x5 pb [3/2008] for $15.41 BiblioLife 9¼x6 hardcover [6/2009] for $30.99 available as free online etext at Project Gutenberg
	"Prejudices: A Selection" [1927] by H.L Mencken, Edited with Introduction by James T. Farrell Johns Hopkins Univ Press 8½x6 pb [6/96] for $19.97 Vintage mass pb [2/58] out of print/many used Modern Library hardcover [1930] out of print/used Knopf hardcover [1927] out of print/used
	H.L. Mencken's 3-volume autobiography "Happy Days, 1880–1892" [1940] Johns Hopkins Univ Press 8¾x5¾ pb [8/2006] for $25.00 "Newspaper Days, 1899–1906" [1941] Johns Hopkins Univ Press 8¾x5¾ pb [8/2006] for $25.00 "Heathen Days, 1890–1936" [1943] Johns Hopkins Univ Press 8¾x5¾ pb [8/2006] for $25.00
	"A New Dictionary of Quotations On Historical Principles From Ancient & Modern Sources" [1942] Selected & edited by H.L. Mencken Knopf 9½x7 hardcover [6/42] out of print/used more on Working Minds Philosophy's Books of Quotations Page

	"A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing" [1948] Vintage 7¾x5¼ pb [4/82] for $14.93 "A Second Mencken Chrestomathy" [1994] Edited by Terry Teachout Vintage 8x5 pb [9/95] out of print/used Knopf 8¾x6 hardcover [1/95] out of print/used
	"The Vintage Mencken" [1955] 49 essays 'gathered by' Alistair Cooke http://www.amazon.com/The-Vintage-Mencken-ebook/dp/B004SMQJME/ Vintage 8¼x5½ pb [3/90] for $9.62 Vintage mass pb [8/55] out of print/used Vintage mass pb [8/55] out of print/used
	"The Impossible H.L. Mencken: A Selection of His Best Newspaper Stories" [1991] Edited by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers, with a Foreword by Gore Vidal Anchor 9¼x6 pb [10/91] out of print/many used Doubleday 9x6 hardcover [10/91] out of print/used
	"My Life As Author and Editor" [1993] Edited by Jonathan Yardley Kindle Edition from Random House/Vintage [12/2011] for $13.99 Vintage 8½x5½ pb [1/95] for $25.00 Knopf 9½x6½ hardcover [1/93] for $30.00
	"Thirty-Five Years of Newspaper Work: A Memoir" [1994] Edited by Fred Hobson, Vincent Fitzpatrick & Bradford Jacobs Johns Hopkins Univ Press pb [9/2006] for $25.00 Johns Hopkins Univ Press 9x6 pb [1/96] for $16.95 Johns Hopkins Univ Press 9½x6½ hardcover [8/94] out of print/used
	"Mencken's America" [2004] Edited by S.T. Joshi Ohio Univ Press 8¾x6 pb [2/2004] for $22.95 Ohio Univ Press 9¼x6½ hardcover [2/2004] for $40.40
	"A Religious Orgy In Tennessee: A Reporter's Account of The Scopes Monkey Trial" [2006] by H.L. Mencken Kindle Edition from Melville House [12/2010] for $9.32 Melville House Publng 7½x5½ pb [9/2006] for $16.95
	"H.L. Mencken: Prejudices (Library of America)" [2010] Edited by Marion Rodgers Volume 1: "Prejudices: First [1919], Second [1920], and Third [1922] Series" Library of America 8¼x6½ hardcover [9/2010] for $26.60 Volume 2: "Prejudices: Fourth [1924], Fifth [1926], and Sixth [1927] Series" Library of America 8¼x6½ hardcover [9/2010] for $26.60 "Prejudices: The Complete Series" in two volumes Library of America 8½x6½ hardcover [9/2010] for $44.10

Spirit of America Bookstore H.L. Mencken[1880-1956]

Spirit of America Bookstore
H.L. Mencken
[1880-1956]