Few writers roiled the American cultural scene like Henry Louis Mencken. Pathbreaking journalist, trenchant social observer, and unbridled humorist, Mencken was the most provocative and influential cultural critic of the last century. To read him today is to be plunged into an era whose culture wars were easily as ferocious as our own, in the company of a writer of boundless curiosity and vivacious frankness. In the six volumes of Prejudices published between 1919 and 1927, Mencken attacked what he felt to be American provincialism and hypocrisy, and championed writers and thinkers he saw as harbingers of a new candor and maturity. Laced with savage humor and delighting in verbal play, Mencken's prose remains a one-of-a-kind roller coaster ride over a staggering range of thematic territory: literature and journalism, politics and religion, sex and marriage, food and drink, music and painting, the absurdities of Prohibition and the dismal state of American higher education, and the relative merits of Baltimore and New York. Now, The Library of America restores the full text of Mencken's landmark work to print in a deluxe two- volume boxed set, ensuring that new generations of readers can rediscover his one-of-a-kind genius.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful
By oregonpapa
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Not much more can be said about Mencken that Kevin didn't cover in his review. This two volume set replaces a "selected" version that I had in my Mencken collection. I will pass the selected version along to a friend. Mencken is a true word smith in the highest order. He has a way of presenting things that has me rolling on the floor in laughter, pounding my fists on my armchair in anger and shaking my head in disbelief as he exposes tedious frauds, ignoramuses, cheap rouges, hypocrites, and other grasping, selfish, dishonest mammals that are hell-bent on robbing us of the fruit or our labors. For those who aren't familiar with Mencken, I highly recommend this set.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By P R Munro
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought these volumes for a friend and ended up reading almost all of both for myself as we passed them between us. Mencken is a writer whom I had heard mentioned regularly but took him to be more a dated source of witticism than a lasting voice to be heard with respect. These essays and pieces give a fascinating insight into the US political and literary scene in the pre-WW1period and its aftermath. Mencken should be given much more prominence as pungent observer of the society in which he lived and as an interpreter of trends and fallibilities in its governance which continue to dictate patterns of political behaviour.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Too much Gemütlichkeit is as fatal to criticism as it is to surgery or politics
April 3, 2013
By H. Schneider
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice. This, of course, refers to criticism.
Mencken, one of the most influential intellectuals in the US in the first half of the 20th century, was provocative, amusing and interesting. He was neither religious nor leftist, but rather full of contempt for both. He described himself as a conservative anarchist. He was pleading for resistance to the pollution of logic by emotion. On the other hand, he was given to mixing up issues badly and he wasn't such a sharp logician himself when it came to political questions.
His critical essays were collected, edited and published in 6 volumes during the 1910s/20s. The books were called Prejudices, which is a title that appeals to me. Library of America has now published the 6 Prejudices series in two of their nice black volumes. They are a delight.
As critics do, Mencken knew everything better. That's part of the fun.
Some examples.
Psychology and psychoanalysis were indistinguishable from evangelism and circus clowns.
'Emerson, on the side of ideas, has left but faint tracks behind him.'
'Sargent should have been a designer of candy box tops.'
Teddy Roosevelt was a brother in spirit of the Kaiser. 'The America that Roosevelt dreamed of was a kind of swollen Prussia.'
The lands to the South of the Potomac were void of culture and ideas.
No prostitute was ever so vile to a community as a prowling vice crusader. Prohibition will gradually empty the US of its present minority of civilized men.
If women really knew their business, they would give up cooking and focus instead on distilling and brewing. It is a rare man who would walk five blocks for a meal, but it is also a rare man who would not walk 5 blocks for a good cocktail. During prohibition, make that 5 miles.
The KKK was nothing but the secular arm of the Methodist Church.
The average American is a prude, his vices are not those of a healthy boy.
Like writing poetry, reviewing is a function of intellectual immaturity.
The main fury of the essays hits at the mediocrity of American culture. Main culprit is the predominance of the small anglosaxon mind. Creativity is mostly rooted in foreign influences and viewed suspiciously by the mobs.
As accurate as this diagnosis may be, Mencken steps from here into political dreamworlds about elitist Utopias. He shows himself as less than a realist as soon as he departs from his genuine mode of sarcasm.
I am a bit disgusted by M's bigotry towards some subjects, like jazz, or birth control, or sex education, or upward social mobility. He does drop racist comments. His antisemitism at the time of writing these essays is undeniable, though he atoned for that later when he fought for raised immigration quota for Jews trying to leave Nazi Europe.
After one of the two volumes I had enough for the time being. One day I may come back to volume 2. The antidemocratic rants are a little overwhelming and sometimes drown out the pearls.
On the other hand... Considering the gifts of democracy to America at the time of the writing, I can accept some of his issues. After all, there was President Wilson. Then President Harding. There was a world war entered under fraudulent or at least misleading propaganda. There was xenophobia under the guise of anti espionage laws. There was prohibition. There was the red scare. There was censorship. Mediocrity had established a dictatorship.
On the other hand... How his dream world of an elitocracy would have worked, he never says.
Mencken, one of the most influential intellectuals in the US in the first half of the 20th century, was provocative, amusing and interesting. He was neither religious nor leftist, but rather full of contempt for both. He described himself as a conservative anarchist. He was pleading for resistance to the pollution of logic by emotion. On the other hand, he was given to mixing up issues badly and he wasn't such a sharp logician himself when it came to political questions.
His critical essays were collected, edited and published in 6 volumes during the 1910s/20s. The books were called Prejudices, which is a title that appeals to me. Library of America has now published the 6 Prejudices series in two of their nice black volumes. They are a delight.
As critics do, Mencken knew everything better. That's part of the fun.
Some examples.
Psychology and psychoanalysis were indistinguishable from evangelism and circus clowns.
'Emerson, on the side of ideas, has left but faint tracks behind him.'
'Sargent should have been a designer of candy box tops.'
Teddy Roosevelt was a brother in spirit of the Kaiser. 'The America that Roosevelt dreamed of was a kind of swollen Prussia.'
The lands to the South of the Potomac were void of culture and ideas.
No prostitute was ever so vile to a community as a prowling vice crusader. Prohibition will gradually empty the US of its present minority of civilized men.
If women really knew their business, they would give up cooking and focus instead on distilling and brewing. It is a rare man who would walk five blocks for a meal, but it is also a rare man who would not walk 5 blocks for a good cocktail. During prohibition, make that 5 miles.
The KKK was nothing but the secular arm of the Methodist Church.
The average American is a prude, his vices are not those of a healthy boy.
Like writing poetry, reviewing is a function of intellectual immaturity.
The main fury of the essays hits at the mediocrity of American culture. Main culprit is the predominance of the small anglosaxon mind. Creativity is mostly rooted in foreign influences and viewed suspiciously by the mobs.
As accurate as this diagnosis may be, Mencken steps from here into political dreamworlds about elitist Utopias. He shows himself as less than a realist as soon as he departs from his genuine mode of sarcasm.
I am a bit disgusted by M's bigotry towards some subjects, like jazz, or birth control, or sex education, or upward social mobility. He does drop racist comments. His antisemitism at the time of writing these essays is undeniable, though he atoned for that later when he fought for raised immigration quota for Jews trying to leave Nazi Europe.
After one of the two volumes I had enough for the time being. One day I may come back to volume 2. The antidemocratic rants are a little overwhelming and sometimes drown out the pearls.
On the other hand... Considering the gifts of democracy to America at the time of the writing, I can accept some of his issues. After all, there was President Wilson. Then President Harding. There was a world war entered under fraudulent or at least misleading propaganda. There was xenophobia under the guise of anti espionage laws. There was prohibition. There was the red scare. There was censorship. Mediocrity had established a dictatorship.
On the other hand... How his dream world of an elitocracy would have worked, he never says.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Really Good Read
This set of books is a classic. Not up to the same level as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but on a level as The Moon and Sixpence. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Tony Marquise Jr.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Superb writer
H.L. Mencken's outstanding writing talent is on full display throughout both volumes. Even when he discusses people or events that I have never heard of, his writing is such fun... Read more
Published 13 months ago by M. Walters
4.0 out of 5 stars
A man of sharp words that still can cut
Being familiar with events in early 20th Century America will help in grasping the insights that Mencken delivers. His words reveal the true cynic. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Schnauzerbark
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent companions
I was largely unfamiliar with Mencken's writings until recently but I decided to take a chance on these two volumes. How lucky I am that I did! These essays are wonderful. H.L. Read more
Published 21 months ago by James D. Crabtree
5.0 out of 5 stars
A+ Grade
Good Amazon service and delivery. Less expensive than same edition through Library of America.
Published on September 28, 2010 by Mammer and/or Papper to 4
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