Prologue: Boston, 1926
Part One: 1880-1914
1: The Citizen of Baltimore
2: The Eternal Boy
3: August Mencken & Bro
4: Baltimore and Beyond
5: Terse and Terrible Texts
6: Plays and Players
7: The Great Baltimore Fire
8: A Man of Ability
9: A Young Man in a Hurry
10: Broadening Horizons
11: The Bad Boy of Baltimore
12: Outside, Looking In
Part Two: 1914-1919
13: The Holy Terror
14: Mencken, Nathan, and God
15: Round One!
16: Berlin, 1917
17: The Prevailing Winds
18: Over Here
19: The Infernal Feminine
Part Three: 1920-1930
20: The Dry Millennium Dawns
21: Of Politics and Prose
22: That Man in Baltimore
23: The Duel of Sex
24: Old Discord and New Alliances
25: The Scopes Trial
26: In the Crucible
27: Banned in Boston
28: The Great God Mencken
29: A Sentimental Journey
30: The German Valentino
31: The Sea of Matrimony
32: Variations on a Familiar Theme
Part Four: 1930-1935
33: The Tamed Ogre of Cathedral Street
34: Hard Times
35: "Happy Days are Here Again"
36: Maryland, My Maryland
37: The Tune Changes
38: The Late Mr. Mencken
39: A Time to Be Wary
40: A Winter of Horror
Part Five: 1936-1940
41: Baltimore's Friendly Dragon
42: Mencken as Boss
43: Berlin, 1938
44: Polemics and Prejudices
45: Triumph of Democracy
Part Six: 1941-1948
46: The Weapon of Silence
47: On the Home Front
48: Mencken and the Guild
49: Friends and Relatives
50: The Man Who Hates Everything
51: The Great Upset of 1948
Part Seven: 1949-1956
52: The Last Days
Epilogue: The Passing of an Era
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Marion Elizabeth Rodgers has edited Mencken and Sara: A Life in Letters and The Impossible H.L. Mencken, a popular collection of his best journalism. She lives in Washington, DC.
"The most superb and entertaining biography (in any field) that
I've read in years, one that has 'National Book Award' stamped all
over it."--Joseph Goulden, Washington Times
"This book is both enlightening and marvelous to read."--Blue Ridge
Business Journal
"Definitive....The last word on perhaps the most famous newspaper
man of the 20th century."--Bloomsberg News
"Every new generation should rediscover H. L. Mencken, and every
journalist should read this fine biography. Marion Elizabeth
Rodgers has produced a balanced, measured portrait, proving herself
as adept at probing the labyrinth of Mencken's private life as she
is at placing his iconoclasm in the context of his times."--The
London Sunday Times
"Rodgers isn't the first to tell the story of powerful and
controversial thinker and writer Mencken, but her affection for
this notorious iconoclast and her access to untapped sources make
for a uniquely fresh and absorbing biography."--Booklist (in naming
Mencken one of the top ten biographies of the year)
"In this splendid biography...Rodgers juggles the dense narrative
of Mencken's life and times with considerable dexterity, while also
providing a glimpse into his very private world....His was one of
the key American literary lives of the 20th century and Rodgers
has, quite simply, done him proud."--The London Independent
"Marion Rodgers has written a comprehensive and humane
biography....In these troubled times, compared to Mencken, with all
his faults, we journalists look like pygmies."--The London Literary
Review
"In these parlous times, when 'media personalities' parrot partisan
talking points, a visit with Mencken is a seidel of cold pilsner on
a hot day. Born in 1880, he died in 1956. Why do people still talk
about him 50 years later? The most exhilarating way to find out is
to read Mencken: The American Iconoclast, by Marion Elizabeth
Rodgers. This biography, the best ever on the sage of Baltimore, is
exhaustive but never exhausting, and offers readers more
than moderate intelligence and an awfully good time."--Martin
Nolan, Boston Globe
"The most recognizably human Mencken to date....The best, as well
as the liveliest, up-to-date biography....Mencken's timeliest
quality remains his bedrock principles, particularly his commitment
to civil liberty in times of hysteria--and regardless of popular
opinion. Would that we could bargain with Hades and trade him for a
Judy Miller or a David Frum. But as it is, we can content ourselves
with Mencken's works, and be thankful that Marion Rodgers has
reminded us of a time when at least one journalist held to an
unswerving commitment to liberty, Comstocks and Creels be
damned."--Daniel McCarthy, The American Conservative
"Rodgers tells all with considerable verve....She's certainly
covered Mencken's extraordinarily complex life with exemplary
thoroughness, sympathy and honesty, and more than a little
wit."--Baltimore Sun
"A superb study of the life of the cigar-chomping controversialist,
civil libertarian and muckraker who remains the patron saint of
journalists, at least of a certain age....The best biography of
Mencken to date."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Skillfully written, broadly encompassing and fairly bristling with
documentation, it is, overall, the best--as well as longest--of the
[major Mencken biographies]."--Chicago Sun-Times
"A biography that stands out in a crowded field because of her
exhaustive research and her deft touch as a writer....Rodgers
manages to make her mark amid all this competition because, among
those who have sought to provide a comprehensive, scholarly
examination of Mencken's life, she is by far the most capable
storyteller. The extent of her research is phenomenal...but she is
never overwhelmed by her material. Rather, she is able to weave all
these intricate
details into a narrative that enables readers to see how this
extraordinary life unfolded in real time....Rodgers' life of
Mencken is memorable and engaging...[S]he now stands with the best
of the
great journalist's biographers."--San Francisco Chronicle
"With obvious affection for her subject, access to untapped
sources, and interviews with Mencken's friends and enemies, Rodgers
offers an absorbing look at the 'bad boy of Baltimore'....Rodgers
conveys the high spirits and complexity of an American iconoclast
and the turbulent times in which he lived."--Booklist (starred
review)
"By far the best Mencken biography ever written--and this reviewer
has read almost a dozen....This book is a masterpiece....If you
care about America, ideas, courage, and good writing and read only
one biography this year, I would suggest this be the one."--Toledo
Blade
"Detailed, pungent, humorous and vivid....Rodgers presents a wealth
of information that, like Mencken's writing, is a true joy to
read."--Santa Fe New Mexican
"Even now, almost 50 years after his death, many of Mencken's
political insights hold true...[A]s Rodgers shows in this thorough
work, Mencken was more than a newspaperman and prolific
author....This is a meticulous portrait of one of the most original
and complicated men in American letters."--Publishers Weekly
(starred review)
"H.L. Mencken--Henry to his friends--has always been a hard nut to
crack. Now Marion Elizabeth Rodgers has, for once and for all, just
about done it....In clear and forceful prose he would have approved
of, Rodgers gives Mencken his 1ightful place in American literature
and life. Her book is...captivating."--Anthony Day, Los Angeles
Times
"A comprehensive biography of this famously irascible writer from
Baltimore."--Library Journal
"The most complete and the most living picture of H. L. Mencken
that has ever been attempted, written with vividness and even
poignancy. This is a definitive biography."--Charles Fecher,
editor, The Diary of H. L. Mencken, and author of Mencken: A Study
of His Thought
"A fine piece of work."--Seattle Times
"A detailed look at the life and works of one of America's foremost
journalists and social critics, whose public identity outshines his
private one."--Denver Post
"Provides new insights into the inner life and character of a man
who has always been an enigma....But it is her sympathetic yet
unflinching look at Mencken the lover and Mencken the (falsely)
accused bigot and defender of Hitler that make her book
special....Rodgers' biography brings fresh understanding to
America's greatest journalist, who approached every subject with
complete fearlessness and honesty and the conviction that the
writer must always put on a
good show. Did he ever."--Memphis Flyer
"H.L. Mencken, the legendary scourge of the booboisie, infuriated
red-state Americans while enchanting urban freethinkers, boozers,
and long-haired eggheads. In this full length portrait of the great
hell-raiser and his era, Marion Rodgers discloses an old-fashioned
mama's boy and a warm and apparently irresistable lover of women.
Also--what a rarity!--a truly independent mind."--Russell Baker
"Marion Elizabeth Rodgers is a thorough scholar and not--like so
many American biographers--an idolater; she has delicate intuition
about her subject, a lively awareness of the warts, and overall
good judgement."--Alistair Cooke
"The greatest American master of witty invective was also an
eccentric, vulnerable human being. So we learn from Marion
Rodgers's wonderful book. Wonderful and timely. 'Heave an egg out
of a Pullman window,' he wrote, 'and you will hit a Fundamentalist
almost anywhere in the United States today.' To paraphrase
Wordsworth on Milton, 'Mencken! Thou shouldst be living at this
hour.'"--Anthony Lewis
"Rodgers's Mencken is a latter-day Mark Twain, the man whose fights
against censorship and for civil liberties were meant to benefit
all Americans. The virtue of this book is that, for Mencken's many
admirers, it provides a detailed, loving account of their hero as
he goes about his life."--Weekly Standard
Named one of the "Best Books of 2007" by the
Arkansas-Democrat-Gazette
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