Customer Reviews

The Vintage Mencken

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Vintage Mencken, edited by Alistair Cooke, will have readers reaching for their dictionaries and laughing uproariously at the same time. Mencken, in savage and truculent language, denounces politicians, YMCA's,educational systems, American authors, police officers, and other manifestations of quackery. An excellent introduction to the work of the man called "The Sage from Baltimore."

Please read this book for a refreshing view from a highly intelligent author from the early 20th century...Mencken was *not* a confirmed racist - this tag was applied to him when some of his personal diaries were published and his writings were compared against the current day "PC" language test. If you were to strike up a conversation with any person 90 years ago I would think their speech would shock modern sensibilities on the race issue. In Menckin's case, I encourage you to read about his actions in the race issue - the fact that as an editor he published African-American authors when no other mainstream publications would do so. That he opposed segregation and had many friends he actively and publicly supported that were of a diverse nature religiously and racially.

If you want a good weekend read with bookends from the beginning and the end of the twentieth century, pick up "The Vintage Mencken" and "Eat the Rich" or "Parliament of Whores" from P.J. O'Rourke, the current HL Mencken scholar at the Cato Institute. You will have a refreshing libertarian infusion which will help you withstand the current New Left and Religious Right babble that is so pervasive in the media these days.

How I wish Mencken were alive today, taking aim at all of the manifestations of American bufoonery: political correctness, television evangelists, daytime talk shows and Bill Clinton; his work would never be finished. This volume wonderfully demonstrates why he was the most influential journalist, editor, book reviewer and writer of his day. If you don't read all these essays, be sure not to miss 'The Anglo-Saxon', 'The Hills of Zion' and 'In Memoriam: W.J.B.'

When Paul Johnson called Mencken the "Shakespeare of American Journalism" he wasn't exagerrating. "Star-Spangled Men," for example, is one of the most brilliant and hilarious commentaries to ever be written, and it should be mandatory reading for college students. In fact, this book should be a staple of American Studies curriculae.

Just as it would be interesting and very helpful if we could have Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln around to advise us today, so would we be greatly entertained and enlightened (at the very least in the sense of having our spirits lifted) if Mencken were here to ply his craft from his charming little townhouse in Baltimore.

I can't recall when I first read this--maybe 30 years ago. You just wanna write a Mencken-tinged missive to your Congressperson afterward. But Mencken could be vicious without being vengeful, something few public personae are capable of today. The piece on Valentino is incredible: the Valentino-Mencken tete-a-tete would make great theater, I think. Mencken would be really uncomfortable in today's simplified soundbyte world: here was a confirmed racist who promoted the Harlem Renaissance & condemned segregation in public places. Still, his essays on Baltimore in the 1880s, Lincoln, & chiropracty are the American language in shining armor. Anyone who wants to write well should read this. To paraphrase Keats, it's all ye need to know!

_The Vintage Mencken_ compiled by Mencken's protégé Alistair Cooke is a collection of various essays of the great Baltimore iconoclast H. L. Mencken. H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956) was a journalist and writer who was born and lived in Baltimore for most of his life. Mencken is perhaps best known as one of the founders of _The American Mercury_. Mencken's commentary on American life and politics in the early Twentieth Century is often bitter, sarcastic, cynical, and abrasive, but the intent is almost always humorous. Mencken is also well-known for being brazenly politically incorrect and has been criticized extensively for his alleged "racism" and "anti-Semitism" by the usual suspects. However, like all Mencken's opinions, his views remain highly idiosyncratic and difficult to define, and Mencken frequently rails against "Ku Kluxry", though whether he is being intentionally ironic is difficult to determine. However, while Mencken's challenge to the political correctness of his day is to be applauded, in certain respects he can become infuriating. Among other things, Mencken takes on Prohibition, religion, "puritanism", racial equality, the plutocracy, American militarism and World Wars I and II, Presidents Wilson and Roosevelt, feminism, Anglo-Saxon superiority, the South and rural people, populism, "quackery" in medicine, fundamentalism, and anti-Darwinism. Philosophically, Mencken appears to have been influenced by the caustic style of both Mark Twain and Nietzsche. Mencken's political views have been described as libertarian (and he even at times uses the very word "libertarian" to describe the general gist of his viewpoint); however, they differ in certain respects from modern libertarianism. Mencken also retains an elitist attitude, frequently looking down at rural people and the middle classes (what he ironically calls "the American booboisie"). Mencken also is believed to have been an ardent Social Darwinist and was a defender of Darwinism against religion. He also had very idiosyncratic views on race and frequently made deprecating remarks about blacks and Jews (though privately he had many friends of both races), which has led some to claim that he was a racialist. However, his views on race are complicated (as he also attacks Anglo-Saxons and certain points about segregation towards the end of his life) and thus may be seen as despising all races. In terms of religion, Mencken is frequently considered a "free thinker" and possibly an agnostic or atheist and he frequently refers to himself as a "heathen" and "infidel". However, like all things concerning Mencken it is difficult to discern exactly where he stands on any issue, partly because he is frequently contradictory and takes contrary positions merely to be contrary and partly because his intent is frequently humor and thus one can never be certain how serious he is.

This book begins with essays by Mencken featuring comments on his early life in Baltimore. Mencken describes the brutal surroundings in which he grew up as well as youthful experiences at the Y.M.C.A. (before he became fed up with their preaching and abandoned it). Mencken would retain a lifelong distrust of religion which frequently bubbled over into hatred. His hatred seems to be particularly directed against various American versions of Protestantism (Baptists and Methodists) as well as "puritanism" and may have been in part caused by the excessive efforts of religious to prohibit alcohol at the time. (Even G. K. Chesterton was to praise Mencken's efforts against "puritanism" and Prohibition while at the same time castigating him for his irreligion.) Included also is an essay by Mencken on cops which details Mencken's generally positive experiences and view of them. Mencken sees cops as largely honorable people (he frequently distinguishes between "honorable" and "moral", of which he is cynical) and defends them from charges of graft and corruption. Mencken also defends the sort of folk wisdom of the Baltimore policemen, arguing against the intrusion into their domain of more book-learned individuals. Another essay of Mencken's deals with the novelist Theodore Dreiser, a man whom Mencken admires. In a separate essay, Mencken tells the story of his involvement in the Cuban revolution as a reporter. Mencken also has much to say about George Washington (who he admires), Abraham Lincoln (who he also appears to somewhat admire though he maintains that in contrast to his popular image Lincoln did not intend to free the slaves and that Lincoln may have been a non-believer), and the commonplace of lying as well as the universal public hatred of truth-tellers. Mencken also expresses his distrust of democracy (which he sees rooted in envy in the same way as he sees "puritanism") and the need for a genuine aristocracy (as opposed to the plutocracy). Mencken next goes on about the failure of American letters, he comments again on the failure of democracy and the need for an aristocracy as against the plutocracy, and he also notes the silliness of the obsession with the "Reds" that existed at the time. Perhaps one of Mencken's best essays is his essay "Star-Spangled Men" - a highly sarcastic commentary on America's military culture, patriotism, and the absurdity of World War I (Mencken also states that he maintains the same feelings towards World War II). Mencken also exposes the silliness of various fraternal organizations such as the freemasons as well as expresses his hatred for Woodrow Wilson (the arch-puritan). Mencken's commentary on women and the relationship between the sexes is profound (although sure to displease any politically correct feminist). Mencken's views however are not anti-woman, but merely realistic. He shows the differences between the sexes and appears to put woman on a pedestal though noting certain other deceptive aspects of her nature. In an ironical essay on the Anglo-Saxon, Mencken argues against Anglo-Saxon supremacy, maintaining that while the Anglo-Saxon is prone to braggadocio he is largely a coward and a failure. Mencken notes that many in America have Celtic blood and thus are not true Anglo-Saxons. He also appears to praise other European races instead. Some have maintained that this essay on the Anglo-Saxons is an argument for Germanic racial superiority (Mencken was partly Anglo-Saxon himself but mostly German) and thus an expression of disgust at the Anglo-American involvement in the world wars. In other essays, Mencken comments on Holy Writ, music, Prohibition (Mencken is an ardent promoter of alcohol), and religion and Darwinism. Mencken mocks rural people, the religious, anti-Darwinians, chiropractors, Freudians, and much else. In a particularly disgusting essay, Mencken engages in a tirade against populist hero William Jennings Bryan. Mencken also has much to say about F. D. R., Coolidge, the presidency, the Supreme Court (and its horrendous attempts to destroy the rights of Americans), segregation, death, and several other topics.

I certainly applaud much of what Mencken says in his efforts to lift up the veil of the political correctness of his day. However, there are certain aspects of Mencken that I find particularly disgusting. For example, in his early essays, Mencken revels in his youthful abuse of animals (something intolerably sickening). Mencken also is a vehement critic of religion and rural people. While Mencken is largely correct about much of American Protestantism, his complete denigration of religion is uncalled for and would make any latter-day elitist liberal proud. (Ironically, Mencken appears to have had some admiration for the Roman Church and may have even predicted the disasters that befell it with the advent of Vatican II. Mencken notes for example that someday they will "translate the liturgy into American" and thus ruin the Roman mass.) Mencken's comments on rural people are equally disgusting. But, perhaps most disgusting is his assault on the populist Bryan who adamantly opposed Darwinism.

Today, Mencken is read by all sorts. Liberals, secularists, and "rationalist skeptics" frequently express admiration for his comments on religion and rural people; however, they then try to excuse or downplay his racialism, hatred for democracy, hatred for F. D. R., and opposition to World War II. For example, the arch-liberal S. T. Joshi has quoted Mencken on religion while at the same time castigating him for his hatred of Roosevelt. Liberals and genuine conservatives alike have also found an ally in him in their opposition to the "neoconservatives". On the other hand, Mencken has also found supporters among those who maintain an idolatry of the free market, while they ignore his comments on the "plutocracy". All such attempts to co-opt him for various modern causes are pretty disgusting overall. In many ways, Mencken himself was a disgusting man who was too arrogant to believe in a personal God and looked down upon rural people. However, in terms of his opposition to World Wars I and II and his hatred of Roosevelt, Mencken is refreshingly correct. Roosevelt is today worshipped by all kinds from leftists to neoconservatives, but his disgusting policies put into effect have utterly decimated the underpinnings of the United States. I am certain that Mencken himself would be horrified were he to witness the world of today.

For a modern day iconoclast in the spirit of Mencken, one should consult the works of the late Australian philosopher David Stove. Also, for a book which features Mencken's views as well as those of other political alternatives consult Willis Carto's _Profiles in Populism_.

Mencken was a well known editor, book reviewer and writer. The selected essays are interesting and often very funny, but I somehow expected a more comprehensive and well-rounded selection of his writings. The book is certainly entertaining and sometimes insightful - hence a purchase to be considered. However, a better job could have been done in selecting the material for the book - including perhaps a selection of his famous aphorisms.

Some classic Mencken here. You know you feel uneducated when reading great writers from this period. His vocabulary is amazing. Pointed observations of the times. There are sadly few today that match his depth, whit and humor. A worthy read.

I have never read anything by Mencken, but it was high time to do it. This is a good beginning. Mencken may be out of fashion, but his newspaper style is very readable, and he had opinions about everything

No doubt the man was a gifted wordsmith and an entertaining read. But his colorful irascibility about practically anything under the sun did get tiresome at some points in this selection. His quasi-obituary about William Jennings Bryan was one hell of a mean-spirited diatribe. Wow, talk about kicking a person when their down. Also, I don't ever recall having to use my electronic dictionary so frequently with any other author. Half the fun was laughing when I discovered the meanings of some of the words he had used. Yet, despite Mr. Mencken's surliness, his remarkable writing and insights made the book well worth reading. Just keep your dictionary handy.