Mencken, Henry Louis ___ 1880-1956 ___ American ___ writer, editor

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Mencken was born in Baltimore, Maryland, into a tobacco family. He studied at the local polytechnic, and went to work at his father's cigar factory. When his father died in 1899, he decided to become a journalist, and worked on several newspapers including the 'Baltimore Sun' for which he wrote until the late 1930s. In 1903, he published some poems, and two years later, a book on Bernard Shaw. During the First World War he reported from both Germany and Russia, but had pro-German sympathies. During and after the war, he wrote columns for several newspapers and magazines, became the first literary editor of 'The Smart Set', and, in 1919, published a very successful guide to American expressions and idioms. During the 1920s he became one of the country's most influential literary critics, and, in 1924, cofounded 'The American Nation'. In 1930 Mencken married Sara Haardt, a writer who was 18 years younger than himself. However, she was ill, and died five years later. Mencken was a staunch supporter of new talented writers, but was very critical of others who he felt did not deserve literary success. He wrote many humourous and controversial essays which filled six published volumes entitled 'Prejudices'. He did not start keeping a diary until 1930, although he did publish several autobiographical books about his experiences as a journalist.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1930-1948 ___ literary political family people health language

WEB TEXT LINKS
a few pages
several extracts
about

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
City of Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Library

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Diary of H L Mencken
 

May 2005, July 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.