Bøger af H. L. Mencken

The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, a classical book, has been considered essential throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we at Alpha Editions have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work and hence the text is clear and readable.

On the eve of the First World War, two iconoclastic young journalists, H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan, were offered the co-editorship of The Smart Set, a New-York based magazine with literary ambitions. During their nine years as co-editors, from 1914 until 1923, Mencken and Nathan transformed The Smart Set into a must-read of the early jazz era, established themselves as two of America's foremost critics, and became bona-fide celebrities in American popular culture. Indeed, "Mencken and Nathan" were at times as popular collectively as they were separately. Among their writings in The Smart Set are a jointly authored series of nine "Conversations," written dialogues between Mencken and Nathan that depict their personal interactions in various circumstances and locales, chronicling a series of events perhaps both real and imagined. Taken together, the "Conversations" offer a plausible if somewhat exaggerated representation of their idiosyncratic relationship as authors and editors. Published here with a new Introduction and Glossary, The Smart Set "Conversations" of H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan are reprinted in the present edition in their entirety. H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan were controversial figures during their era. They were culture warriors, disruptors, instigators, masters of satire and irony. Their writings were often offensive to readers then and will likely engender only greater offense now. Contemporary readers may find The Smart Set "Conversations" to be a timely reflection upon the history of the American public dialog. This edition of The Smart Set "Conversations" is intended for mature readers interested in the history of arts and literature, as well as the American popular culture of the 1920s.

In Defense of Women is H. L. Mencken's 1918 book on women and the relationship between the sexes. Some laud the book as progressive while others brand it as reactionary. While Mencken did not champion women's rights, he described women as wiser in many novel and observable ways, while demeaning average men.According to Mencken's biographer, Fred Hobson: "Depending on the position of the reader, he was either a great defender of women's rights or, as a critic labelled him in 1916, 'the greatest misogynist since Schopenhauer', 'the country's high-priest of woman-haters.'" The original title for Defense was A Book for Men Only, but other working titles included The Eternal Feminine as well as The Infernal Feminine. The book was originally published by Philip Goodman in 1918, but Mencken released a new edition in 1922 in an attempt to bring the book to a wider audience. This second edition, published by Alfred Knopf, was both much longer and milder. In general, biographers describe Defense as "ironic" it was not so much a defense of women as a critique of the relationship between the sexes. Topics covered by the book included "Woman's Equipment," "Compulsory Marriage," "The Emancipated Housewife," and "Women as Martyrs." Women were gaining rights, according to Mencken-the ability to partake in adultery without lasting public disgrace, the ability to divorce men, and even some escape from the notion of virginity as sacred, which remained as "one of the hollow conventions of Christianity." Women nonetheless remained restrained by social conventions in many capacities. Mencken's love of women was driven in part by the sympathy he had for female literary characters (especially those brought to life by his friend Theodore Dreiser), as well as his almost fanatical love of his mother. Mencken supported women's rights, even if he had no affection for the suffragist.Although he originally intended to be ironic when he proclaimed that women were the superior gender, many of the qualities he assigned to them were qualities he deeply admired - realism and skepticism among them, but also manipulative skill and a detached view of humankind. The book was reviewed very well: according to Carl Bode, there were four times as many favorable reviews as unfavorable.The first edition of the book sold fewer than 900 copies, a disappointing showing. The second edition sold much better, during the more progressive Roaring Twenties. (wikipedia.org)

The 1918 book In Defense of Women by H. L. Mencken discusses women and how the sexes interact. The book has received both progressive and reactionary reviews. Mencken did not advocate for women's rights, but he did disparage ordinary males by describing women as wiser in a number of innovative and observable ways. The defense was originally titled A Book for Men Only, but it also had the working titles The Eternal Feminine and The Infernal Feminine. In an effort to reach a larger audience, Mencken issued a new edition of the book in 1922 after Philip Goodman had first published it in 1918. This Alfred Knopf second edition was both lengthier and kinder than the first. Mencken frequently advocated political, religious, and metaphysical viewpoints that emphasized their grotesqueness and absurdity; in this context, he welcomed escape from the alleged deceit of such solemn issues. The book received excellent reviews, with four times as many positive as negative ones, according to Carl Bode. Less than 900 copies of the book's initial edition were sold, which was a disappointing result. During the more progressive Roaring Twenties, the second edition fared significantly better in terms of sales.

Notes on Democracy is a harsh critique of democracy. The book places political leaders into two categories: the demagogue, who "preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots" and the pandering politician, "who listens to what these idiots have to say and then pretends that he believes it himself." Mencken depicts politicians as "men who have sold their honor for their jobs."

In Damn! A Book of Calumny, H.L. Mencken gives his opinion on a wide variety of subjects ranging from William Jennings Bryan, through Classical Music, to Zoos. I am a huge fan of Mencken's hilarious, bombastic, and sesquipedalian style. He is the quintessential American cynic and it's a lot of fun to watch him smash every sacred cow he can get his hands on. The fact that I disagree with his opinions much of the time does nothing to dampen my enjoyment of reading him. To understand the American mind in the 3 decades before WWII, it's essential to read him. (Noah Goats)About the author:Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 - January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes Trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also gained him attention.As a scholar, Mencken is known for The American Language, a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States. As an admirer of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, he was an outspoken opponent of organized religion, theism, and representative democracy, the last of which he viewed as a system in which inferior men dominated their superiors. Mencken was a supporter of scientific progress and was critical of osteopathy and chiropractic. He was also an open critic of economics.Mencken opposed the American entry into World War I and World War II. Some of the opinions in his private diary entries have been described by some researchers as racist and anti-Semitic, although this characterization has been disputed. Larry S. Gibson argued that Mencken's views on race changed significantly between his early and later writings, and that it was more accurate to describe Mencken as elitist than racist. He seemed to show a genuine enthusiasm for militarism but never in its American form. "War is a good thing", he wrote, "because it is honest, it admits the central fact of human nature.... A nation too long at peace becomes a sort of gigantic old maid".His longtime home in the Union Square neighborhood of West Baltimore was turned into a city museum, the H. L. Mencken House. His papers were distributed among various city and university libraries, with the largest collection held in the Mencken Room at the central branch of Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library. (wikipedia.org)

In Defense of Women , a classic since it was first published. Has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies and hence the text is clear and readable.

"The normal American of the 'pure-blooded' majority goes to rest every night with an uneasy feeling that there is a burglar under the bed and he gets up every morning with a sickening fear that his underwear has been stolen."-H. L. Mencken, The Anglo-Saxon (1923)The Anglo-Saxon (1923), is an essay by H. L. Mencken in which he criticized Anglo-Saxonism, a belief system of late 19th century and early 20th century promoting the superiority of English-speaking nations. Mencken, although he considered himself of true Anglo-Saxon ancestry, thought the American Anglo-Saxon to be inferior and weak.

A new, completely revised and much extended edition of H. L. Mencken's well-known work first issued in a limited edition as a "preliminary inquiry" in 1919, this book is the most comprehensive treatise on the American dialect ever attempted. It almost exhausts the subject. It is a genuine "magnus opus" of over 500 pages, with extensive bibliographies and a word and phrase index of 12,000 entries. Avoiding the typical dullness of such books about language, Mencken created a thoroughly entertaining read.The bulk of the previous research and writing on the American Language, according to Mencken in the Preface to the First Edition, had been dedicated "to absurd efforts to prove that no such thing as an American variety of English existed - that the differences I constantly encountered in English and that my English friends encountered in American were chiefly imaginary."THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE was nothing less than a declaration of linguistic independence. No more would America suffer the oppression of literary colonialism. A new day had dawned on American literature. "American writers were finally able to take flight from the old tree and to trust for the first time their own dialect," Edmund Wilson observed. "Mencken showed the positive value of our own Vulgate heritage."