Second Mencken Chrestomathy - Softcover

Mencken, H.L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679764070 ISBN 13: 9780679764076

Publisher: Vintage, 1995

Synopsis

A collection of 238 observations by the social commentator includes thoughts about the American political system, sex, crime, and vices

About this title

Review

Few Americans stirred up more controversy than H.L. Mencken, and perhaps no American ever wrote more stylish prose. In this sequel to the landmark Mencken Chrestomathy of nearly 50 years ago, the genius of Mencken's commentary and the stunning breadth of his interests -- from music to politics to fine art to the brewer's art -- are displayed in all their eloquent grandeur. The essays, reviews, and examples of brilliant reporting were all selected by Mencken himself, and today's thinking readers are fortunate to finally see publication of this fine book some forty years after Mencken's death.

From Booklist

Following My Life as Author and Editor (1993) and Fred Hobson's biography , the Menckenian revival continues apace with this sparkling successor to the first chrestomathy, which was a best-seller in 1949. More than an anthology, the second volume represents pieces (some previously unpublished) that Mencken himself selected and revised before his stroke aborted the project; another proposal to publish came to nought in 1963. Over 60 percent of the 238 items, many from Mencken's magazines Smart Set and American Mercury, are not available elsewhere, which in itself makes the publication of this title something of a literary event. That it parades again the sage of Baltimore in his incisive, if often irksome, eloquence only confirms him as one of the better belletrists of the century. The job of discriminator of taste exists to be seized in any age, and in the teens and twenties, Mencken extolled and excoriated with idiosyncratic abandon. The books and music he reviewed have faded from memory, but his satirical exfoliations remain fresh, for example, in praise of a bartender's memoir of the bibulous arts or in contempt for a Rotarian's history of his organization. Edited by New York critic Terry Teachout, who is preparing his own biography of the provocateur, this entertaining, exasperating collection captures Mencken's gloomy view of human nature and his bright delight in stripping from it all cant and concealment. Gilbert Taylor

Edition details

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0679764070
• ISBN 13: 9780679764076
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 544