Writings in the Smart Set, Volume 2: 1912-1913

by H.L. Mencken, S.T. Joshi (Editor)

In this second volume of Mencken’s writings in the Smart Set, we see Mencken begin his championing of the work of Joseph Conrad, as well as continuing his promotion of Theodore Dreiser as a leading American novelist. European writers such as Hermann Sudermann and August Strindberg also come in for extensive discussion. And Mencken writes a hilarious column poking fun at several books expressing fears about white slavery. He also initiates a column of miscellaneous humorous sketches, “Pertinent and Impertinent.” More significantly, Mencken writes a six-part series, “The American,” studying conventional Americans’ attitudes on art, literature, politics, and the “new Puritanism.” In all, this volume features a rich treasure-trove of material highlighting Mencken’s critical acuteness, satirical skill, and cultural awareness.

511 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 23, 2018

About the author

Henry Louis "H.L." Mencken became one of the most influential and prolific journalists in America in the 1920s and '30s, writing about all the shams and con artists in the world. He attacked chiropractors and the Ku Klux Klan, politicians and other journalists. Most of all, he attacked Puritan morality. He called Puritanism, "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."

At the height of his career, he edited and wrote for The American Mercury magazine and the Baltimore Sun newspaper, wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column for the Chicago Tribune, and published two or three books every year. His masterpiece was one of the few books he wrote about something he loved, a book called The American Language (1919), a history and collection of American vernacular speech. It included a translation of the Declaration of Independence into American English that began, "When things get so balled up that the people of a country got to cut loose from some other country, and go it on their own hook, without asking no permission from nobody, excepting maybe God Almighty, then they ought to let everybody know why they done it, so that everybody can see they are not trying to put nothing over on nobody."

When asked what he would like for an epitaph, Mencken wrote, "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."

(from American Public Media)

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I almost bailed in the middle of the nearly unreadable opening entry. Overall, 1913 proves better than 1912, but it really depends on your tolerance for reviews of books that with a few exceptions sank without trace over a century ago. There are some funny columns published under the name Owen Hatteras, but also some lectures, already tiresome at this early date, on the intellectual elite's superiority to the mob. There are also flashes of brilliant writing, but stick with the livelier and more varied Free Lance columns he was writing for the Baltimore Evening Sun at the same time -- they're published in this series.