Thirty-five Years of Newspaper Work: A Memoir by H. L. Mencken (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf) - Softcover

Mencken, H. L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080185380X ISBN 13: 9780801853807

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996

Synopsis

"No greater prose stylist ever wrote for an American newspaper. It is always useful and enjoyable to be reminded of this, as Thirty-five Years of Newspaper Work most certainly does... Should be required reading not merely for all newspaper people but for all those who labor in what we now call 'the media.'"―Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World

In January 1991 the Enoch Pratt Free Library opened the sealed manuscript of H. L. Mencken's "Thirty-five Years of Newspaper Work." Written in 1941-42 and bequeathed to the library under time-lock upon Mencken's death in 1956, it is among the very last of his papers opened to the public. Thirty-five Years of Newspaper Work, a one-volume edition of highlights from the manuscript, vividly pictures the excitement of newspaper life in the heyday of print journalism.

Here Mencken colorfully recalls his years―mostly with the Baltimore Evening Sun―as a reporter and a writer of editorials that always caused a stir among the public and riots of indignation among his enemies. The volume includes important new material on his coverage of presidential candidates from 1912 to 1940 and the 1925 trial of the man he called the "infidel Scopes."

"The book reveals a man who loved food, alcohol, cigars, and good friends... Mencken had so many friends in high places that a few well-placed telephone calls invariably got him to the heart of the matter and revealed more information than any other reporter could solicit."―Raymond L. Fischer, USA Today

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In January 1991 the Enoch Pratt Free Library opened the sealed manuscript of H. L. Mencken's "Thirty-five Years of Newspaper Work". Written in 1941-42 and bequeathed to the library under time-lock upon Mencken's death in 1956, it is among the very last of his papers opened to the public. Thirty-five Years of Newspaper Work, a one-volume abridgement of Mencken's much longer memoir, vividly pictures the excitement of newspaper life in the heyday of print journalism. Here Mencken colorfully recalls his years - mostly with the Baltimore Evening Sun - as a reporter and a writer of editorials that always caused a stir among the public and uproars of indignation among his enemies. The volume includes important new material on his coverage of presidential candidates from 1912 to 1940 (Mencken on Harding's inaugural address: "a string of wet sponges") and the 1925 trial of the man he called the "infidel Scopes". Mencken also describes his brief stint as a war correspondent on Germany's subzero Eastern Front in 1917 and the perilous voyage back, which took him through Havana just as a revolution was breaking out. (He stayed to cover it.) He writes, with curious detachment, about the "inevitable" war and likely fate of Germany's Jews during a final visit to his ancestral homeland in summer 1938. And he describes colorful Baltimore personalities, shares local gossip, and offers candid - usually unflattering - portraits of the politicians and clerics he mostly despised.

About the Author:

Fred Hobson is professor of American literature at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of Mencken: A Life and Serpent in Eden: H. L. Mencken and the South. Vincent Fitzpatrick is assistant curator of the Mencken Collection at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore and the author of H. L. Mencken. Bradford Jacobs is former editorial page editor of the Baltimore Evening Sun and the author of Thimbleriggers: The Law v. Governor Marvin Mandel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 080185380X
• ISBN 13: 9780801853807
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416
• Editor: Hobson Fred, Fitzpatrick Vincent, Jacobs Bradford