Who is mencken h.l

Related Books H. Mencken: Prejudices: The Complete Series boxed set. Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology. Learn More. Browse our books Subscribe. In the s, Mencken returned to his work documenting language.

He encouraged readers to send him examples of words in various regions of the country, and busied himself with that research. A greatly enlarged fourth edition of The American Language was published in He later updated the work with supplements published as separate volumes. Mencken's research on how Americans changed and used the English language is dated by now, of course, but it is still informative and often very entertaining.

Mencken had been friendly with Harold Ross, the editor of The New Yorker, and Ross, in the s, encouraged Mencken to write autobiographical essays for the magazine. In a series of articles, Mencken wrote about his childhood in Baltimore, his raucous years as a young journalist, and his adult career as an editor and columnist. In Mencken, keeping to his long tradition, covered both major party political conventions and wrote syndicated dispatches about what he had seen.

Late that year he suffered a stroke from which he only partly recovered. He had difficulty speaking, and his ability to read and write had been lost. He lived quietly in his house in Baltimore, visited by friends, including William Manchester, who would write the first major biography of Mencken. He died on January 29, Though he had been out of the public eye for years, his death was reported as front-page news by the New York Times.

In the decades since his death, Mencken's legacy has been widely debated. There is no doubt he was a writer of great talent, but his display of bigoted attitudes surely diminished his reputation. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile.

Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. In addition to the three volumes of autobiography, Happy Days, , Newspaper Days, , and Heathen Days, , information on Mencken's life is in William R. Mencken , written in consultation with Mencken. An irreverent treatment is found in Charles Angoff, H.

Mencken: A Portrait from Memory Douglas C. Stenerson, Mencken: Iconoclast from Baltimore , is a sound appraisal. William Nolte, H. Mencken: Literary Critic , tries to evaluate Mencken's contribution to his craft. Joseph W. Beach, The Outlook for American Prose , is a fair appraisal of Mencken's style by a contemporary.

Knopf, , p. However, the authorship of the quote does not lie with any work original to Mencken, and was previously reported as an anonymous quote. When the water reaches the upper deck, follow the rats.

Mencken quotes this in Newspaper Days, — as a maxim he learned from Al Goodman. June 8,