H.L. Mencken

1917mencken
1880-1956

George Bernard Shaw: His Plays (1905)
The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1907)
The Gist of Nietzsche (1910)
What You Ought to Know about your Baby (Ghostwriter for Leonard K. Hirshberg) (1910)
Men versus the Man: a Correspondence between Robert Rives La Monte, Socialist and H. L. Mencken, Individualist (1910)
A Book of Burlesques (1916)
A Little Book in C Major (1916)
A Book of Prefaces (1917)
In Defense of Women (1918)
Damn! A Book of Calumny (1918)
The American Language (1919)
Prejudices (1919–27)

  • First Series (1919)
  • Second Series (1920)
  • Third Series (1922)
  • Fourth Series (1924)
  • Fifth Series (1926)
  • Sixth Series (1927)
  • Selected Prejudices (1927)

Heliogabalus (A Buffoonery in Three Acts) (1920)
The American Credo (1920)
Notes on Democracy (1926)
Menckeneana: A Schimpflexikon (1928) – Editor
Treatise on the Gods (1930)
Making a President (1932)
Treatise on Right and Wrong (1934)
Happy Days, 1880–1892 (1940)
Newspaper Days, 1899–1906 (1941)
A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1942)
Heathen Days, 1890–1936 (1943)
Christmas Story (1944)
The American Language, Supplement I (1945)
The American Language, Supplement II (1948)
A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)

Quotes

++++Christ, we are told, preached no complicated mysteries and demanded no pedantic allegiance. He knew nothing of transubstantiation, or of reserved sacraments, or of the adoration of the saints, or of the vestments controversy. He was even somewhat vague about original sin. Alive today, could He qualify as a bishop? He could not. Even the Salvation Army would put Him on probation, at least until He had mastered the cornet. Even the Christian Scientists would bar Him from their auctionblock, at least until He had got a morning coat and paid cash for a copy of “Science and Health.” What would the Congregatio Sancti Officii say of His theology? What would the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals say of His ethics? What would Monsignor Manning say of His patriotism, or of His economic views, or of His probable opinion of the great spiritual filling-station on Morningside Heights? What these high authorities would say, I venture, would be a plenty.
+++American Mercury, Editorial, May, 1928, p. 25

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *