My Life As Author And Editor

by H.L. Mencken

After thirty-five years in a sealed vault, the autobiography of one of America's greatest social and literary critics chronicles Mencken's remarkable life, discussing his rivalries, feuds, and friendships; his views on the world; and much more. 12,500 first printing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Classics, Memoir, Autobiography, Biography Memoir, Writing

449 pages, Hardcover

First published January 11, 1993

About the author

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 of his career, he edited and wrote for The American Mercury magazine and the Baltimore Sun newspaper, wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column for the Chicago Tribune, and published two or three books every year. His masterpiece was one of the few books he wrote about something he loved, a book called The American Language (1919), a history and collection of American vernacular speech. It included a translation of the Declaration of Independence into American English that began, "When things get so balled up that the people of a country got to cut loose from some other country, and go it on their own hook, without asking no permission from nobody, excepting maybe God Almighty, then they ought to let everybody know why they done it, so that everybody can see they are not trying to put nothing over on nobody."

When asked what he would like for an epitaph, Mencken wrote, "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."

(from American Public Media)

Reviews

[ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it does include a very telling look into the life of Mencken and his inner circle of aristocratic literary society, this memoir is very rough and incoherent at times. He includes an insane amount of trivial detail that would bore even the most devoted of Menckophiles--such as hyperspecific details of his sales and royalty figures broken down month-by-month, and even notes about his income tax filings. Why he felt this stuff was an important inclusion in his historical reveals a lot about his immense ego.

It is painfully apparent that what we are reading is nothing more than a very rough draft, as he often repeats himself and the structure is very loose and at times the chronology is a little hard to piece together despite his detailed accounting and penchant for including specific dates. The fact this is nowhere near complete and nonetheless is a drastically pared-down version of what he originally intended is even more mind-boggling.

It definitely opens a window into a different era, and for that I am grateful, but I can't help but wonder how good it could have been if he hadn't suffered a debilitating stroke so early in its production.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing much to say here except how much I love Mencken's voice.

[Tyler Arnold · Rating 2 out of 5]

That was absolutely a tough mark to come to a decision on. Within the final 100 pages, I figured I'd give it at least 3 stars, but within the final stanza, I just fell completely out of care. In all, it's a disheveled mess of a read. The timelines of thought just jump all over the place, which would be fine and dandy if each chapter was dedicated to a friendship. But instead, the cast and characters of his life pop up here and there with backtracking and forward tracking galore. Less an autobiographical look and more a stream of conscious thought on the people in his life. No wonder he demanded this book wait to be published until so long after his death, he all but eviscerates everybody he was close with. While enlightening to some of the greats of the time, it also felt downright gossipy more often. It was ultimately hard to get through. I knew little of Mencken previous to the read other than his benchmark as a writer. I really appreciated the hustle and sheer desire to get work out and can absolutely relate to the do what you need to in order to make a living. However, he seemed insincere to the nth degree. His circle of friends seemed merely there for the benefit of thrusting him forward. He only seemed to care about being able to say he "made" a person before they rapidly pestered off in his care. He had that many bad things to say about anybody he worked even remotely in proximity to. The ego was also something quite offputting. Even for his time, he seems to stand out as a particular anti-semite among other isms. I appreciate a person unafraid to speak to the deficiencies of their own country (granted his alignment to Germany during both World Wars have dubious at best intentions), but the issue with his proclaiming to be better than the masses is that he somewhat cowardly hid those ideas behind others' works and all but refused to enter his true inklings on the war for the public to do what they would. So he loses all the points he could have gotten for trudging his own path. In all, a historically worthwhile somewhat peer behind the curtain of the dominating format of entertainment of the time. It was just messy and Mencken a pisspoor figure to ultimately have the lens of sight provided via.

[Donald Linnemeyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable autobiography. On the one hand, you get a great look at Mencken himself, what drove him and what he thought of his own accomplishments. And you also have Mencken's shrewd mind cutting through the literary figures of his day. Not only is that just fun, but it provides an interesting look at early 20th century America, too. It drags in some places, especially when he tells you yet another story of some strange literary figure and their personal issues, but it's definitely worth the read.

[J.R. Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the book is full of arcane references to people that most of us who are currently alive have ever heard of, and he tends to beat the stale air out of topics of little current relevance, it is still the marvelous prose of H.L.Mencken, so...

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

My wife says she would read Stephen King’s laundry list, she like his writing style so much. So it is with me and Mencken. At times repetitive and indulgent, Mencken’s voice nevertheless shines through it all and resonates.

There are many better HLM options—this memoir is for Mencken nerds like myself.

[Andrew Noselli · Rating 2 out of 5]

I especially enjoyed the portraits of Theodore Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis and Frank Harris. But, as Mencken refused to be politically correct, this volume has been selected for the dustbin of history and the cultist. Two stars.

[Priyanka · Rating 1 out of 5]

The most sexist and racist author of all times. He was a little too prideful of that though.

[Nicholas Russon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an incomplete work, originally intended to cover at least two more decades of his life, cut short by his incapacitating stroke in late 1948. It clearly lacked his usual care in editing, as there is significant repetition of information and odd lacunae that I'm certain he'd have addressed during his editing process. At the time this book was published (well after Mencken's death, at his specific direction to his literary executors), the casual anti-semitism of some of his comments caused great offence, but in today's (2019) political atmosphere his uncharitable comments about Jewish writers, editors, and businessmen he dealt with might almost seem quaint.

It's odd, given how tightly the professional lives of Mencken and George Jean Nathan were intertwined that Nathan - despite frequent appearances in the text - is one of the least filled-out characters, especially compared to (for example) Hergesheimer, Dreiser, Knopf, Fitzgerald, Lewis, Cabell and even some lesser literary lights.

This is the last, and due to its state of incompletion and almost first-draft quality, perhaps his worst mature work, but IMO still worth reading for that genuine "Mencken" flavour.

[Greg Bischoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought it was quite interesting. He shows a side of some authors that one does not always realize or see.
Just had this problem with him being a bit full of himself.