From Menckeniania

Author, Publication, etc.

S.T. Joshi, whose previous works include H-L. Mencken on Religion and From Baltimore to Bohemia: The Letters of H.L. Mencken and George Sterling, here presents a collection of BLM comments on books, authors and criticism. Joshi's latest exploration into Mencken arcana is rewarding to the reader.

Mencken, by his own reckoning, estimated that he wrote 900,000 words of book criticism during his Smart Set years; Joshi includes fiftysix from that source plus selections from the American Mercury (26) and one each from the Nation, the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times Book Review. Mencken's literary criticism played a pivotal role in wresting American letters from the banal and the Puritan influence. This book recaptures HLM's vitality and pungent assessments as they were first written. Mencken rewrote and preserved a number of his author profiles and book reviews and included them in various editions of the Prejudices series and his Chrestomathy, but it is a valuable treat to read these pieces as originally written under publication deadline.

Joshi's selections include thirty-four authors: Dreiser is represented six times; Willa Cather, eight; Sherwood Anderson, nine; James Branch Cabell, nine; and Sinclair Lewis, six. Mencken's comments are as relevant today as they were a century ago. Flis assessment of Ring Lardner renews appreciation of that author's manifold talents despite the vanishing of the American scene; the characters remain vital. Mencken's comments are absorbi-n,-,; he seemed to value, especially, authors whose journalistic roots-Dreiser, Cather, Lardner and Anderson-iinbued their work with naturalistic realism.

Mencken made some well-known "discoveries" and championed their cause with tubthumping enthusiasm, but he endorsed some clinkers as well-David Graham Phillips and Mary Roberts Rinchart, for example. His assessment of Hemingway-tepid at best-looks better as "Papa" fades. E.W Howe and George Ade remain two of FILM's lost causes awaiting full recognition.

Included is a "Glossary of Narnes" (once called a Gazeteer) that identifies some 245 people referred to in Mencken's commentary, names once well-known, whose exploits have faded from memory. Joshi has produced a noteworthy book that ranks with William Nolte's H.L. Mencken: Literary Critic, and we should be grateful, too, for a publisher with the vision to make this collection available. Every library should acquire this book, as well as literate readers interested in Mencken.

Menckeniana