Minority Report: H. L. Mencken's Notebooks

Mencken, H. L.

ISBN 10: 1299229115 / ISBN 13: 9781299229112

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York

About this Item

First Edition / 2nd Printing (June, 1956). Published by Knopf in blue cloth covered boards with gold spine titles and an impressed dual rearing stags and tree seal on the front board. Includes a black jacket printed with green, orange and white nonconcentric circles on the lower half of the front. The book is in Very Good condition with a Poor dust jacket included only for completeness. The covers are in great shape with light surface and edge wear. Light staining to the bottom edge of the text block. The binding is tight. There is a bookplate fixed to the front paste-down. The interior pages are unmarked. Jacket shows heavy edge wear, large chips and tears, and is missing at the lower third of the jacket's spine and the head of the spine. There is a faint circular stain on the rear of the jacket which is also slightly visible on the rear cover. The book will be carefully packaged for shipment for protection from the elements. USPS electronic tracking number issued free of charge.

Seller Inventory # 12541

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Minority Report: H. L. Mencken's Notebooks
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1299229115
• ISBN 13: 9781299229112
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Printing: 2nd Printing
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Poor
• Dimensions: 8.5W x 5.75H x 1.1D inches 8.5 inches width by 5.75 inches height by 1.1 inches depth

About this title

Synopsis

MENCKEN AT THE TOP OF HIS FORM IN A MANUSCRIPT COMPLETED PRIOR TO THE FALL OF 1948 BEFORE THE ONSET OF HIS ILLNESS

Review

The great skeptic and prose stylist H.L. Mencken had a lifelong habit of keeping notebooks that he'd plumb for ideas. He eventually collected many brief essays from his notebooks and published them as Minority Report, claiming in the book's introduction that the pieces had been selected at random. That may be true, but as Mencken's writing discipline seemed to require him to always produce elegant prose, it's fair to say that his random notebook entries are superior to the polished essays of many other writers. Mencken was simply a national treasure, and Minority Report, as it contains a great many of his observations on a wide variety of subjects, is a good place to begin to get a taste of his eccentrically intelligent style.