H. L. Mencken as Artist and Critic

For close to two decades, S. T. Joshi has been one of the leading authorities on H. L. Mencken, the fiery journalist and critic whose vibrant writings-books, magazine articles, and thousands of newspaper pieces-continue to engage readers and critics of American literature. Because he has read the entirety of Mencken's bountiful output, he is in a unique position to study those aspects of Mencken's work that others have ignored. In particular, Joshi has shown how Mencken, in addition to bring a brilliant social and literary critic, also wrote dozens of poems, short stories, and plays (including the full-length farce Heliogabalus); and in several essays in this book he displays the value of this material. Other essays discuss Mencken as a longtime book reviewer, as a scourge of religious obscurantism, as an autobiographer, and other topics. Throughout these essays, Joshi displays his familiarity with Mencken's life, writings, and the intellectual and cultural era in which he wrote.