The Days of H. L. Mencken: Trilogy and Accompanying Notes
FAIN: FT-60963-13
Marion Elizabeth Rodgers
Unaffiliated Independent Scholar (Washington, DC 20007-3080)
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), the prolific author, editor, newspaperman, and philologist, influenced two generations of writers, spanning the period from World War I through the 1920s. In light of Mencken's importance to the nation's cultural and literary heritage, I have been chosen to edit his autobiographical trilogy, "Happy Days, Newspaper Days and Heathen Days." This scholarly Library of America edition will also include the first publication of Mencken's "Additions, Corrections and Explanatory Notes," the last major primary historical documents released under time-lock. New knowledge includes how he honed his craft as well as intimate details of childhood and family, filling in personal and historical gaps in Mencken's biography. In Mencken's attempt to draw serious and meaningful conclusions about his life, flaws and imperfections, the man who emerges is not the vague legendary figure but the actual Baltimorean, who influenced such writers as Sinclair Lewis and Richard Wright.