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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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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

Shelves: hlmencken, journalism, favorites

"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!

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Jun 13, 2007 Frederick rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People interested in the American Novel, History, Politics and Humor

Shelves: letters-journals-essays, mencken

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 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 the early-to-mid-twentieth century to really relate to this stuff.
Briefly, Mencken was an American newspaperman of the most hardworking sort. He reported, edited, published, etc. Around 1918 or so he began to write literary criticism and political commentary. He caricatured Woodrow Wilson as the hand-wringing, prudish "Archangel Woodrow." He essentially called Wilson a liar for running on a promise not to involve the United States in the First World War and then going ahead and involving it anyway. Young, educated readers related to Mencken in much the same way college students in 2007 relate to Jon Stewart. Mencken championed writers who had been censored. He skewered pompous politicians, bombastic ministers and grandiose businessmen. At the same time, he put together a serious, if, nevertheless, amusing multivolume work called THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE, which is still in print. So: Mencken was something of a dynamo. But when the stock market crashed and the establishment he ridiculed was collapsing, Mencken fell into disfavor. His conservatism became more and more obvious to a readership seeking the socialism of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mencken the Darwinist who had made Williams Jennings Bryan a laughing stock in his Scopes Monkey Trial reporting, was, by the time World War Two started, an archconservative who publically reviled Roosevelt and who chose not to write a word about the Nazis. He had personally felt the sting of anti-German bigotry during World War One and he used this grievance as a justification for his silence about Nazism. He signed a petition to help Jewish refugees, but this gesture wasn't much from a man whose words would have reached men in power.
So, why should we read anything by him? Because he is a master of comic form. When he attacks a politician, an idea or an institution, he is not actually trying to change the reader's mind. He is simply trying to cause him to collapse in the corner laughing.
He builds comic suspense better than anyone except Twain and has a slapstick sensibility which is still unbeaten. Such a devotion to humor is something of a virtue, perhaps Mencken's only one.

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Apr 26, 2013 Gerry Germond rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature

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

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Apr 12, 2012 Aaron Arnold rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010

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

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Jan 16, 2013 Shane rated it 5 of 5 stars

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

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Jun 26, 2008 Jeremy rated it 5 of 5 stars

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.

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Nov 11, 2009 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 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 amateur musician himself) not in the sense that he was sweet or pretty, but in the sense that his prose had a rhythm, a beat. Reading Mencken is a vibrant pleasure. This rollicking appreciation of Beethoven is a case in point:

"It was a bizzare jest of the gods to pit Beethoven, in his first days in Vienna, against Papa Haydn. Haydn was undeniably a genius of the first water, and, after Mozart's death, had no apparent reason to fear a rival. If he did not actually create the symphony as we know it today, then he at least enriched the form with its first genuine masterpieces - and not with a scant few, but literally with dozens. Tunes of the utmost loveliness gushed from him like oil from a well. More, he knew how to manage them; he was the master of musical architectonics. But when Beethoven stepped in, poor old Papa had to step down. It was like pitting a gazelle against a bull. One colossal bellow, and the combat was over. Musicians are apt to look at it as a mere contest of technicians. They point to the vastly greater skill and ingenuity of Beethoven - his firmer grip upon his materials, his greater daring and resourcefulness, his far better understanding of dynamics, rhythms and clang-tints - in brief, his tremendously superior musicianship. But that is not what made him so much greater than Haydn - for Haydn, too, had his superiorities; for example, his far readier inventiveness, his capacity for making better tunes. What lifted Beethoven above the old master was simply his greater dignity as a man. The feelings that Haydn put into tone were the feelings of a country pastor, a rather civilized stockbroker, a viola player gently mellowed by Kulmbacher. When he wept it was with the tears of a woman who has discovered another wrinkle; when he rejoiced it was with the joy of a child on Christmas morning. But the feelings Beethoven put into his music were the feelings of a god. There was something olympian in his snarls and rages, and the was a touch of hell-fire in his mirth.

It is almost a literal fact that there is not a trace of cheapness in the whole body of his music. He is never sweet and romantic; he never shed conventional tears; he never stikes orthodox attitudes. In his lightest moods there is the immense and inescapable dignity of the ancient prophets. He concerns himself, not with the transient agonies of romantic love, but with the eternal tragedy of man. He is a great tragic poet..."

The absolute confidence of his voice and the command of the language we see in this excerpt is present in virtualy everything he wrote. Read this book, and whatever else from Mencken you can get your hands on. Even if you don't agree with what he says, you'll love the way he says it. (less)

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Jul 25, 2008 Johnny rated it 5 of 5 stars

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."

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Sep 02, 2010 Allison added it

Shelves: gave-up-the-ghost, i-wanna-be-smrt

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

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Mar 22, 2010 Jason Mills rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People interested in Things In General

Shelves: non-fiction, miscellany

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 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 something he rarely troubles us with), so we have to take on trust that he knows what he's talking about. I fear that he had sometimes too much confidence in his own powers of pure reasoning, leading, for instance, to views on the South presented at length that flirt disturbingly close to racism, spuriously ascribing cultural phenomena to genetic lineage: "As a result of this preference of the Southern gentry for mulatto mistresses there was created a series of mixed strains containing the best white blood of the South..." "It is highly probable that some of the worst blood of western Europe flows in the veins of the Southern poor whites... The original strains, according to every honest historian, were extremely corrupt." What could that even mean?

I find him similarly close-minded in his snobberies: jazz is an "infernal din" for idiots and barbarians; all culture aside from classical music is pigeon-holed under "The Lesser Arts"; and he has a peculiar longing for society to be enriched by an intellectual elite, with the kind of freedoms and invention, but also the kind of feudalistic powers, of European aristocracy. (I may be caricaturing him there, but not much.) And if his 'insights' about Women take the form of back-handed compliments, they are scarcely the less patronising.

On the other hand, his prose is never dull and frequently passionate. The sections about his favourite composers float off the page (Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert...). His writing on boxing reeks of sweat and sawdust. He bigs up Twain repeatedly, declaring Huckleberry Finn to be the finest American novel. And his essay The Hills Of Zion is evidently, and understandably, regarded as a classic piece of reportage, brilliantly evoking the heat and fervour of a backwoods revivalist meeting.

Topped off with amusing Buffooneries, including a superb little comic fable about a Chinese medicine-man, this is stimulating reading from start to finish. Even where he's clearly wrong, Mencken is a fellow worth the trouble of disagreeing with.(less)

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Jul 26, 2009 Garry Wilmore rated it 4 of 5 stars

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."

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Dec 11, 2010 Bob Ladwig rated it 4 of 5 stars

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.

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Jun 08, 2009 Chris Comis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: cultus-and-culture, philosophy

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.

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Apr 10, 2010 Dirk rated it 4 of 5 stars

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.

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Dec 20, 2009 D.W. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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.

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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.

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Sep 18, 2012 David Batchelor rated it 4 of 5 stars

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.

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Sep 23, 2010 Craig J. added it

A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing by H.L. Mencken (1982)

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Dec 23, 2010 Bob Primosch rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ripping good stuff -- makes Christopher Hitchens look like Norman Vincent Peale

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Apr 29, 2013 Jacob Sanders rated it 5 of 5 stars

Guy is kind or a genius, kind of an asshole, but 100% awesome!

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Apr 18, 2011 Joshua rated it 4 of 5 stars

The best of the most acerbic mind in 20th century America. Love it.

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Dec 13, 2009 Greg Crites rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mencken will always be one of my top ten favorite wordslingers.

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Oct 15, 2009 Matthew W rated it 5 of 5 stars

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.

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Jul 10, 2012 Phil Truesdale added it

One of my favorite American writers.

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Jun 23, 2009 Shawn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-culture-and-sociology, high-school-and-college

I will never forget "The Husbandman".

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Mar 29, 2009 Douglas Wilson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: wordsmithing

Outstanding.

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Jul 22, 2009 Lindsey Doolan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: humor, litcrit

This guy is funny. I was bored, but that was my fault.

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Sep 03, 2012 Zachariah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, humor, essays, politics

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.

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May 18, 2008 Leonard Pierce rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays

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.

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Nov 04, 2008 Bill Viall rated it 5 of 5 stars

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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About H.L. Mencken

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

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Quotes from A Mencken Chrestomathy

“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey-cage.” — 30 people liked it

“The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line. The objection to it is not that it is predominantly painful, but that it is lacking in sense.” — 29 people liked it

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