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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: Knopf in 1918 in 144 pages; Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Literary; Biography & Autobiography / Editors, Journalists, Publishers; Language Arts & Disciplines / Journalism; Literary Collections / Essays; Literary Criticism / American / General; ... Read more

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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing’s Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing’s Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Midstream, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2005. The length of the article is 2304 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Mencken in Palestine.(Israel)(Henry Louis Mencken antisemitism)
Author: Matt Nesvisky
Publication: Midstream (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 51Issue: 4Page: 15(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Amazon.com Review
A choice selection of H.L. Mencken's previously out-of-print writings. Highly recommended! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Mencken as Nostradamus
Well-written, occasionally pedantic, insightfully predictive of America's current circumstances. Mencken had a gift for telling it straight and getting it right (most of the time.)

Provocative Insights - Brilliant!
Mencken was noted for his provocative choice of words. Many people don't realize how many idiomatic phrases in common usage were originally penned by this brilliant writer. He was confrontational but he presented his unorthodox views with biting wit. In these times where we are awash in a sea of nasty commentary, politicians and columnists should go back and read how a master could communicate sometimes unpopular ideas. It's sad that so many people have no idea who this man was.

A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing

Still Timely Essays
Mencken, a reporter, editor and columnist for the Baltimore Sun from 1908 until 1940 wrote on a range of subjects during his journalistic career. A cynical contrarian and what we might today refer to as a Libertarian he was definitely not possessed of the need to adher to "politicaly correct" opinions. Hence, his writings will probably not warm the cockles of a Liberal's heart. But, then again, they might benefit from some exposure to enlightment.

With a firm grasp of the English language and a fitting vocabulary, Mencken will send poorly educated college graduate illiberals scrambling for their dictionaries.

Penned to reflect the nature of his times, his observations are as germane to today's conditions as they were 80-years ago.

For a reader unfamilar with Mencken, this annonated collection of essays is an excellent start towards the comprehension of tolerance and critical thinking.

A Master of English Prose
Mencken's writings will appall the politically correct and delight those who enjoy masterful English prose. I started this book by choosing an essay at random, and luck must have been with me on that memorable day, for the essay was "In Memoriam: WJB." That particular gem was my introduction to this inimitable writer, and I've been fascinated with him since.

Of course, it is impossible to write a review of a Mencken-authored volume without mentioning some of his questionable views on race and class divisions. But readers ought to hesitate before condemning his unpalatable verdicts on Jews, Armenians, Poles, Greeks (and so on), for Mencken, what with his all-consuming contempt for Homo Sapiens, was willing (nay, eager!) to go after ANY group with his formidable pen. And remember, too, that good writing is not the sole domain of the morally upright. Mencken was certainly not that, and yet his style surpassed the ramblings of many of his kinder contemporaries. Ah, if he were alive and writing today! What would he make of Dan Brown and his minions, the state of American education, the celebrity craze, and the Truthers?

Delicious if Just For His Thrashing of Lincoln. Yet Much, Much More
If anything needs deflating in this era of Obama, it is the American Presidency in particular, and politics in general. Lincoln was America's first dictator A man who "knew" that he had to destroy freedom to save it from its excesses. Mencken's pen is like Luke Skywalker's light saber in eviscerating the likes of Lincoln, yet he devotes equal attention to the sheepish masses who elect these swine. Some suggest was Mencken a racist? Perhaps, however he used his influence to get black writer's work into leading publications at a time when no one else did.

Gibbons Burke on Mencken:

The most prominent newspaperman, book reviewer, and political commentator of his day, Henry Louis Mencken was a libertarian before the word came into usage. His prose is as clear as an azure sky, and his rhetoric as deadly as a rifle shot. Frequent targets of his lance were Franklin Roosevelt and New Deal politics, Comstocks, hygenists, "uplifters", social reformers of any stripe, boobs & quacks, and the insatiable American appetite for nonsense and gaudy sham. But his life was not defined by negativity. He was positively enthusiastic about to the writings of Twain and Conrad, the music of Brahms, Beethoven and Bach, and the victuals offered up by Chesapeake Bay.

-- All in all, this work an outstanding example of iconoclastic criticism and style. ... Read more