A Mencken Chrestomathy

A Mencken Chrestomathy

4.2 of 5 stars 4.20  ·  rating details  ·  473 ratings  ·  38 reviews
In my title I revive the word chrestomathy in its true sense of 'a collection of choice passages from an author or authors, ' and ignore the late edition of 'especially one complied to assist in the acquirement of a language.' In the latter significance the term is often used by linguists, and some of the chrestomathies issued by them in recent years.
Paperback, 656 pages
Published April 12th 1982 by Vintage (first published April 12th 1949)
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Mark Singer
Jun 02, 2010 Mark Singer rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone with an open mind
Recommended to Mark by: no one
"A Mencken Chrestomathy" was originally published in 1948, when H L Mencken was 68, shortly before a stroke ended his writing career. It's my favorite collection of Mencken's writings, possibly because he selected the contents himself. He had been a journalist, literary critic and cultural gadfly for many years, and much of his best work is here. It's perfect bathroom reading!
Frederick
Jun 13, 2007 Frederick rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People interested in the American Novel, History, Politics and Humor
Over the years I've read bits and pieces of this collection of bits and pieces. I was most fascinated with it when I was in my early twenties. My father was a big reader and he would, on occasion, ask me to get THE MENCKEN CHRESTOMATHY out of his study so he could read a passage to me and my brothers.
I'm fairly certain Mencken compiled this himself and that it was published shortly before a stroke ended his ability to write. One has to know something about American newspapers and magazines of th...more
Gerry Germond
This 627-page tome may also be called "Mencken's Greatest Hits." It is a collection of essays or articles chosen by Himself. H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) was an early twentieth century author, columnist, critic, and essayist. The selections here, 241 of them, cover the gamut of human endeavor. He skewers government, religion, science, the arts, history, education, and the major events and personalities of his time with abandon. He may well be called a curmudgeon (and he's carried in The Portable Cur...more
Aaron Arnold
H. L. Mencken is one of those famous American writers that I'd heard about but never bothered to check out until after I watched The Wire, which is set in his native Baltimore and whose last episode had an epigraph by him. He's a worthy successor to Mark Twain in many ways: a strong background in journalism, biting satire, excellent with language, full of quotable zingers, and a very perceptive chronicler of life in America. The difference is that Mencken never made his mark with the kind of epo...more
Shane
One of the all-time great curmudgeons/misanthropes of the early 20th century in the United States - I'm having a hard time thinking how to describe Mencken's writing style, so I'll paste the quotes from this book that I found on Goodreads - at least one of which demonstrates his rather un-PC sensibilities. Nonethelest, for those who can get past that, and appreciate scathing social and political critique written with literary whomphz, Mencken is essential reading - also fans of Isherwood and Mer...more
Jeremy
What can I say that critics haven’t been saying about him for a hundred years? Mencken lacerates more nonsense and makes more sense--common and uncommon--than everyone else that has lived or is to be born. Possibly the most respected journalist of all time. Father of muckraking, destroyer of popular myths, creator of unpopular truths. If you don’t like H.L.M. I probably won‘t like you.

There, I bet no one said that before.
David
Has America ever had a greater prose stylist than Henry Mencken? It's not just that each of his sentences has a logical essence to it that builds upon and adds to what came before it. It's that those sentences have a pulsing rhythm that seem to pour forth from him in a steadily increasing tempo, the logic and rhythm always in perfect harmony. The cumulative effect of reading Mencken is not unlike that of listening to Beethoven, whom Mencken adored; he was the most musical of writers (he was an a...more
Johnny
People need to read more Mencken.

"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."
Allison
I barely skimmed the surface of this one, so I will simply say that a.) it's always comforting to come across folks who are ten billion times the cantankerous malcontent that you could ever hope to be and b.) it's inspiring (and simultaneously disheartening, since the odds are slim) to think to oneself that if only one could channel one's virulence with such verbal dexterity, one might be on to a promising career. Of course, this was an era in which Perez Hilton had yet to become a household nam...more
Jason Mills
Mar 22, 2010 Jason Mills rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People interested in Things In General
Mencken uses the word Chrestomathy to mean a selection of an author's writings chosen by the author. This is thus a diverse anthology of what HLM presumably regards as his best writing; and certainly it is nothing if not interesting. He skates with merry and cynical insouciance over an impressive range of subjects: politics, history, literature, religion, women, statesmen, etc. Often he is funny; always, acerbic.

Sometimes his opinions go beyond any evidence he presents (indeed, evidence is somet...more
Garry Wilmore
I am a Mencken fan, and this book provides a very good overview of his work. I gave it four stars instead of five, however, only to reflect the fact that I do not always agree with his views even though I love the way he expresses them. He is responsible for introducing several new and useful words into my already extensive vocabulary, among them "booboisie."
Bob Ladwig
Mecken was a polemical journalist of the first rate, although he did not always have the right position he knew how to make his position known. His writing is charming and clever, I am particularly fond of his bold and humourous statements about the nature of government.
Chris Comis
For a Nietzschean, Mencken was quite humorous, as well as culturally insightful. Except he suffered many of the same problems Nietzsche suffered from-- a man without a chest, complaining about other men who lacked chests.
Dirk
Mencken is a master of metaphor and a wonderful writer, but he is very caustic, and dangerous in large doses. I highly recommend reading Lloyd-Jones' "Spiritual Depression" along side of him.
D.W.
Agree or disagree, Mencken's writing is like a hard workout for the mind---and a fun one. This is his own selection of his best. Acerbic, cynical and razor sharp.
Dianne
Jul 20, 2009 Dianne added it
This has to be the meanest sane man to ever walk the earth. Funny, but excruciatingly cruel. Like reading a funnier, meaner, smarter, better-read, whiter Chris Rock.
David Batchelor
A remarkable writer and thinker. Too bad he did not transcend the racist framework of thought in his time. Yet he had many worthy insights.
Craig J.
A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing by H.L. Mencken (1982)
Bob Primosch
Ripping good stuff -- makes Christopher Hitchens look like Norman Vincent Peale
Jacob Sanders
Guy is kind or a genius, kind of an asshole, but 100% awesome!
Joshua
The best of the most acerbic mind in 20th century America. Love it.
Greg Crites
Mencken will always be one of my top ten favorite wordslingers.
Matthew W
A Mencken Chrestomathy is choice selection of H.L. Mencken's previously out-of-print writings. That alone is all that one needs to know.
Phil Truesdale
One of my favorite American writers.
Shawn
I will never forget "The Husbandman".
Douglas Wilson
Outstanding.
Lindsey Doolan
This guy is funny. I was bored, but that was my fault.
Zachariah
I've read about half the essays over this last year. He's an excellent writer. But half of what he says is pretty much BS and lots of heavy, unviable generalization; sometimes it was hard to tell how serious he was.
Leonard Pierce
A tremendous, essential collection of essays by H.L. Mencken, one of America's great writers. Includes his fantastic pieces on chiropractic, execution, and the death of the Scopes Trial.
Bill Viall
If I had to live with one book, this would be it. I'm a huge Mencken fan, and there's plenty of his outside of this book that I need access to, but this is a great place to start.
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Mencken rocks 3 4 Mar 18, 2013 09:09pm  
Mencken Chrestomathy (ebook)
A Mencken Crestomathy
Mencken Chrestomathy (Hardcover)
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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 o...more
More about H.L. Mencken...
The Vintage Mencken American Language In Defense Of Women The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche A Religious Orgy in Tennessee: A Reporter's Account of the Scopes Monkey Trial

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