Highlights
Henry Louis Mencken, better known as H. L. Mencken, was a journalist, satirist, social critic, cynic and freethinker. The "Sage of Baltimore," as he was called, is regarded as one of the most influential American writers of the early 20th century. Mencken was born in 1880 in Baltimore, the son of August Mencken, a cigar factory owner. The family moved to 1524 Hollins Street in the Union Square neighborhood when Mencken was three years old, and he lived in the house for the rest of his life, apart from five years of married life. He became a reporter for the Baltimore Morning Herald in 1899 and joined The Baltimore Sun in 1906. In 1908, he became a literary critic for the magazine The Smart...
Henry Louis Mencken, better known as H. L. Mencken, was a journalist, satirist, social critic, cynic and freethinker. The "Sage of Baltimore," as he was called, is regarded as one of the most influential American writers of the early 20th century. Mencken was born in 1880 in Baltimore, the son of August Mencken, a cigar factory owner. The family moved to 1524 Hollins Street in the Union Square neighborhood when Mencken was three years old, and he lived in the house for the rest of his life, apart from five years of married life. He became a reporter for the Baltimore Morning Herald in 1899 and joined The Baltimore Sun in 1906. In 1908, he became a literary critic for the magazine The Smart Set. Together with George Jean Nathan, Mencken founded and edited The American Mercury, published in January 1924. It soon had a national circulation and became highly influential on college campuses across America. Mencken is perhaps best remembered for "The American Language," a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States, and for his satirical reporting on the prosecution, judge, jury and venue of the Scopes trial, which he is credited for naming the "Monkey" trial. In 1983, the City of Baltimore acquired Mencken's home on Hollins Street and the "H. L. Mencken House" became part of the City Life Museums. Shortly after World War II, Mencken expressed his intention of bequeathing his books and papers to the the Enoch Pratt Free Library on Cathedral Street in Baltimore. At the time of his death at age 75, most of the present collection had been received and a special room on the third floor was prepared to house the items. The Mencken Room was dedicated on April 17, 1956.
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A novel by one of Finland's brightest, Ryszard Kapuscinski's thoughts on "the Other" and the musings of H.L. Mencken on democracy
The Howling Miller
A Novel
Arto Paasilinna
Canongate: 284 pp., $14 paper
GUNNAR HUTTUNEN is a man in pain. He fought in World War II against the Russians, he saw his wife burn to death in a fire and he's trying a new life running a mill on the...Tags: Democracy
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A field day for the bard
H.L. Mencken, the "Bard of Baltimore" who coined the phrase "Boobus Americanus," would have had a field day this election season, given the wide range of weird happenings that occur almost daily. On the other hand, it would be hard for even ol' Henry...Tags: Altamonte Springs
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Viewpoint: Mencken's diminished disciples
What's the collective noun for editorial writers? I need to know, because a whole herd of us is coming together this week here in Little Rock, Ark. But to call us a herd gives us too much credit for organization. I know it's a coven of witches, a pride of...Tags: Mike Huckabee, Truman Capote, Arkansas, Virginia, Political Candidates
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Both parties trying to scare us to death
There is a H.L. Mencken quotation that captures the essence of this year's politics: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of...Tags: Federal Reserve, Unemployment, Government, Political Candidates, National Government
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ALMANAC
On Sept. 12, 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into the river that now bears his name. In 1880 author and journalist H.L. Mencken was born in Baltimore. In 1938 Adolf Hitler demanded self-determination for the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia....Tags: Saddam Hussein, Foreign Aid, Major League Baseball, National Government, Michael Jordan
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200 years, loads of books
As a pianist played "200 Candles," a roomful of Enoch Pratt Free Library fans toasted the bicentennial of the benefactor who gave away his millions, as he put it, "for all, rich and poor, without distinction of race or color." Known best today as the man...Tags: Schools, Sheila Dixon, Libraries and Museums, Computer Hardware, Tourism and Leisure
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'Two Marriages: Novellas' by Phillip Lopate
Two Marriages
Novellas
Phillip Lopate
Other Press: 272 pp., $24.95
THE publication of new fictions -- the first in more than 20 years -- by one of our most reliable men of letters is an occasion worth marking and measuring. Phillip Lopate is best...Tags: Joan Didion, Family, Annie Dillard, Manhattan (New York City), Fiction
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Often predictable and often belittled, the conventions still matter
Presidential conventions are revving up, so it must be time to start tearing them down. You've heard the criticism: Conventions have become meaningless. They're glorified commercials, stripped of all real suspense, choreographed more tightly than a...Tags: Government, Polls, Barack Obama, Political Candidates, National Government
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Nancy Pelosi recalls following line of power
Sun reporterIn her new memoir, Nancy Pelosi remembers the house where she grew up and the needy who would gather outside. It was Baltimore in the 1940s, and the family home in Little Italy functioned as a district office for her father. "People knew this was where...Tags: Trinity College, Connecticut, Family, New York, Steny H Hoyer, Roman Catholic
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On election night and at the gun: They shocked the world
Sentinel Staff WriterClichés are best avoided in speaking to and writing about sports, yet two fingernail-to-chalkboard beauties applied to Super Bowl XLII last February, and appeared as banner headlines in newspapers in America's largest city. "Nothing's impossible."...Tags: New York Giants, Johnny Unitas, Baltimore Colts, National Football League, Eli Manning
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Saluting 'America, America'
Special to the SunAmerica, America By Ethan Canin Random House / 458 pages / $27 Late fall 1971. Liberal Democratic Sen. Henry Bonwiller of Upstate New York is challenging Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine, the favorite in the race for the presidential nomination. He enlists...Tags: Edward M. Kennedy, Maine, Lyndon B. Johnson, New York, Political Candidates
Oct 5, 2008
|Story| Los Angeles Times
Sep 21, 2008
|Story| Orlando Sentinel
Sep 17, 2008
|Resource Link| Chicago Tribune
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|Story| Baltimore Sun
Sep 24, 2008
|Story| Hampton Roads Daily Press
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|Story| Chicago Tribune
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|Story| Baltimore Sun
Sep 14, 2008
|Story| Los Angeles Times
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|Story| Baltimore Sun
Aug 22, 2008
|Story| Orlando Sentinel
Aug 17, 2008
|Story| Baltimore Sun
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