Writings in the Smart Set, Volume 5: 1918-1919: Edited and Annotated by S. T. Joshi

by H.L. Mencken, S.T. Joshi

In this fifth volume of his writings from the Smart Set, H. L. Mencken uses his monthly review column to address broader issues in literature and society, such as “The National Letters,” on American literary history; “Rattling the Subconscious,” on the work of Sigmund Freud and other psychologists; and “The Infernal Mystery,” on religion. We also find pungent review-articles focusing on Mark Twain, Arnold Bennett, H. G. Wells, and others, and Mencken’s polemical skills reach their apogee in “Prof. Veblen and the Cow,” a scathing attack on political theorist Thorstein Veblen. Articles on poetry discuss Ezra Pound, Sara Teasdale, and other poets. This volume also shows Mencken and his co-editor, George Jean Nathan, initiating a monthly column of humor and miscellany, “Répétition Générale.” In addition, there is a bountiful array of short fiction, ranging from satirical tales of married life (“The Homeric Sex,” “Wives”) to poignant accounts of religious belief (“The Man of God”). In all, this volume fully displays the wide scope of Mencken’s literary gifts.

491 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 7, 2018

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

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two stars for the 1918 portion -- mostly book reviews only an antiquarian could love -- and four stars for 1919, which is much livelier. Maybe the end of WWI improved his mood.