The Smart Set: George Jean Nathan and H. L. Mencken (Cloth) [Hardcover]

Thomas Quinn Curtiss (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1557833125 | ISBN-13: 978-1557833129 | Publication Date: February 1, 2000

Thomas Quinn Curtiss has reunited George Jean Nathan with his cohort, H.L. Mencken together with the rest of their set: Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Edmund Wilson, Sean O'Casey, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alfred Knopf, Jack London and Somerset Maugham. The magnificent abandon of their enterprise and the hard drinking Bohemian wisdom of their writing propelled them and fueled generations of readers with their wit and philosophy. This is a biography of an era of men whose stories could only be written by an eyewitness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Curtiss's quasi-biographical study is at its best when he focuses on the friendship and collaboration of Nathan and Mencken when they were co-editors (and occasionally ghostwriters) of the jazz era literary magazine The Smart Set. If Nathan and Mencken had different styles and temperaments?Nathan was a Harvard-educated dandy, Mencken a self-taught newspaperman?they were united by an urgent desire to elevate America's critical standards and similar tastes for realistic, rather than sentimental, art. Curtiss offers a lively portrait of these two iconoclasts, filled with details ranging from their penchant for practical jokes to the forging of a seamless working relationship that spanned a decade. Foremost among their efforts was the introduction of innovative American and European artists, despite censors and the ongoing resistance of what Curtiss calls the "Puritan camp" of critics ruled over by "[t]hat dreary octogenarian, William Winter." Given that Applause is a theater book publisher, perhaps it is predictable that there would be less about the discoveries of O'Neill, Fitzgerald and Joyce, or about Nathan and Mencken's own writings (no more than two of Mencken's reviews are directly discussed), than there is about the critics, playwrights, producers, actors and managers of the New York theater world from 1900 to 1930. Moreover, it is difficult to overlook the somewhat awkward structure of this work, treating as it does two who prized above all else the craft of writing. (Apr.) FYI: Applause will publish The World of George Jean Nathan: Selected Essays and Reviews, edited by Charles Angoff, to coincide with The Smart Set. ($24.95 paper 520p ISBN 1-55783-313-3)
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Curtiss, a celebrated critic for the International Herald Tribune, provides a glimpse into the powerhouse team of Nathan and Mencken and their work during the richest era of American arts and creativity. The Smart Set, a monthly journal inaugurated in 1900, came to prominence under the dual editorship of Nathan and Mencken from 1914 to 1923. It was soon renowned as the most sophisticated, humorous, and irreverent monthly, featuring the work of pioneering new authors such as O. Henry, Damon Runyan, Jack London, Theodore Drieser, Louis Untermyer, Hugh Walpole, Eugene O'Neill, and James Joyce. But it was anchored by Nathan's drama criticism and Mencken's book commentaries. The fertile combination of the two editors served to blend American grit with Continental wit and largely molded the character of American theater, literature, and thought for the period and beyond. This is a useful history and critique of the prevailing traditions of literary theory that reflected the unique intellect and sensibilities of the early decades of this century. Academic students and scholars will welcome this analysis and reconsideration of the avant-garde tradition.?Richard K. Burns, Hatboro, Pa.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 270 pages
• Publisher: Applause Books (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557833125
• ISBN-13: 978-1557833129
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,759,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Names dropped with a thud, May 1, 2007

By 

Harry Eagar (Maui) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Smart Set: George Jean Nathan and H. L. Mencken (Cloth) (Hardcover)

The term `public intellectual' was not used early in the 20th century, and it is a poor phrase now, but it does describe the position of George Jean Nathan and Henry Mencken in the period from about 1908 to 1926, when they stopped collaborating.

They were two lucky young men, the last to be able to make a living as boulevardiers before radio and film ruined that profession; and because the early 20th century offered plenty to jeer at. They were good at it, but, as Thomas Quinn Curtiss makes painfully clear, they were not very discerning critics.

Their problem was they hardly knew when to stop jeering, although they did from time to time, for example Nathan's promotion of Eugene O'Neill. (In an amusing publisher's advertisement at the back of the book -- how very 1915ish -- O'Neill is credited with making Nathan, while Curtiss avers, but hardly demonstrates, that it was the other way round.)

Mencken is still read but Nathan, who was rather higher style, is known as a name from the '20s, like Djuna Barnes, but his 50 books are forgotten. Excerpts in 'The Smart Set' show why. He kept his boyish looks into his 40s, and his boyish and collegiate humor as well. Looking back, it seems odd that such a callow fellow could have gained the reputation of the suavest American. Though, it's true, the competition was thin.

Curtiss knew both men, though it is not clear how well, and with a lifetime of his own around the theater (as a critic at the International Herald Tribune), he was in a position to have written a well-informed, stylish memoir of two men who were all about style. He did not do so. Perhaps he began too late. `The Smart Set' was published in 1998, when Curtiss was about 83.

It is a confusing mishmash, held together neither by chronology nor theme. Much of it is a listing of names, most of which anybody living in the 21st century has never heard of. The book is replete with anecdotes, which will be of interest to those who are interested by literary and, especially, theatrical anecdotes; but there is little else to recommend them.

A memoir of Mencken and Nathan demands, at least, panache. `The Smart Set' is written with all the verve of an encyclopedia article, and wretchedly edited. Names are misspelled (along with much else), errors of fact are common (Provincetown is not in Rhode Island) and episodes are introduced then never concluded. A wretched production.