H. L. Mencken (1880–1956)
Author of The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States
About the Author
H. L. Mencken 1880-1956 H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 12, 1880. He considered Maryland to be his home despite his many years in New York. As a child he attended Professor Friedrich Knapp's Institute, a private school for children of German descent. He show more completed his secondary education at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, from which he graduated at the age of 16. Mencken wanted to be a writer but was obligated to work in his father's cigar factory. When his father died suddenly in 1899, Mencken immediately sought a job at the Baltimore Herald. Through he began with no experience in journalism, he quickly learned every job at the newspaper and at age 25 became its editor. Mencken went on to build himself a reputation as one of America's most brilliant writers and literary critics. His basic approach was to question everything and to accept no limits on personal freedom. He attacked organized religion, American cultural and literary standards, and every aspect of American life that he found shallow, ignorant, or false - which was almost everything. From the 1920's until his death, Mencken's sharp wit and penetrating social commentary made him one of the most highly regarded - and fiercely hated - of American social critics. He was later memorialized in the dramatic portrait of the cynical journalist in the play and film Inherit the Wind. Shortly after World War I, Mencken began a project that was to fascinate him for the rest of his life: a study of American language and how it had evolved from British English. In 1919 he published The American Language: A Preliminary Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States. To this and his publisher's surprise, the book sold out quickly; its wit and nonscholarly approach attracted many readers who would not normally buy a book on such a subject. In 1936, a revised and enlarged edition was published, and in 1945 and 1948, supplements were added. The work shows not only how American English differs from British English but how the 300 year American experience shaped American dialect. Thus the book, still considered a classic in its field, is both a linguistic and social history of the United States. Mencken died in his sleep on January 29, 1956. He was interred in Baltimore's Loudon Park Cemetery. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by H. L. Mencken
The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States (1936) 707 copies
The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States, Supplement II (1948) 218 copies
The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States, Supplement I (1945) 171 copies
The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States {abridged} (1963) 148 copies
A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1942) 117 copies
Prejudices: The First, Second, and Third Series + Prejudices: The Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Series (2010) — Author — 88 copies
The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States; Supplement I; Supplement II (1919) 66 copies
Thirty-five Years of Newspaper Work: A Memoir by H. L. Mencken (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf) (1994) 31 copies
The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States, Supplements I & II (1945) 24 copies
A gang of pecksniffs: And other comments on newspaper publishers, editors and reporters (1975) 22 copies
The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States {Second Edition} (1921) 15 copies
The American Language: A Preliminary Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States {First Edition} (1919) 13 copies
The Antichrist 12 copies
H. L. Mencken Seven Book Collection: The American Credo; The American Language; The Philosophy Of Friedrich Nietzsche;… (2017) 10 copies
Men Versus the Man: A Correspondence Between Robert Rives La Monte, Socialist, and H. L. Mencken, Individualist (1910) — Co-author — 10 copies
Dreiser-Mencken Letters: The Correspondence of Theodore Dreiser and H. L. Mencken 1907-1945 (1986) 8 copies
DREISER - MENCKEN LETTERS. The Correspondence of Theodore Dreiser & H. L. Mencken 1907 - 1945. Volume One. (2016) 7 copies
Notes on Democracy 5 copies
The mating game and how to play it: Tips and pointers from the collected wisdom of H. L. Mencken (over fifty years a… (1974) 5 copies
Selected Prejuduces Second Series 3 copies
Ship Ahoy — Contributor — 3 copies
Eleven Plays of Henrik Ibsen 3 copies
The Works of H. L. Mencken 2 copies
Ausgewählte Schriften: Ausgewählte Werke, 3 Bde., Bd.2, Autobiographisches 1930-1948 (2000) 2 copies
Writings in the Smart Set, Volume 4: 1916-1917: Edited and annotated by S. T. Joshi (Collected Essays and Journalism of… (2018) 2 copies
The rewards of virtue 2 copies
H L MENCKEN / American Language An Inquiry Into the Development 1960 [Hardcover] MENCKEN, H.L 1 copy
American Credo: a Contribution Toward the Interpretation of the National Mind, improved 8/19/2010 1 copy
Russian Ballet Technique: As Taught by Alexis Kosloff of the Imperial Russian Ballet School, Moscow (Classic Reprint) (2016) 1 copy
H.L. MENCKEN PREJUDICES 1 copy
Ventures Into Verse 1 copy
Fordomme. Udvalg og oversættelse ved Hartvig Andersen. (Hasselbalchs Kulturbibliotek Bd. XXX) 1 copy
A Book of burlesques 1 copy
The American Mercury. October 1926. v. IX, No. 34 — Editor — 1 copy
Supplement 1 copy
The triumph of the have-not 1 copy
The American Mercury: Volume 26, Number 107: November 1932 (Including John Fante "Home Sweet Home" 1 copy
H. L. Mencken on Politics 1 copy
Menckeniana A Schimpflexicon 1 copy
A Girl From Red Lion, P.A. 1 copy
The Sensibility of Woman 1 copy
The American Mercury, Volume XXII No 85, January 1931 — Editor — 1 copy
Homo Neanderthalensis 1 copy
Mr. Cabell of Virginia 1 copy
American Mercury, July 1931 1 copy
Writings in the Smart Set, Volume 3: 1914-1915: Edited and Annotated by S. T. Joshi (Collected Essays and Journalism of… (2018) 1 copy
The Smart Set December 1919 1 copy
Writings in the Smart Set, Volume 8: 1922-1923: Edited and Annotated by S. T. Joshi (Collected Essays and Journalism of… (2019) 1 copy
Writings in the Smart Set, Volume 7: 1921-1922: Edited and Annotated by S. T. Joshi (Collected Essays and Journalism of… (2019) 1 copy
Writings in the Smart Set, Volume 6: 1920-1921: Edited and Annotated by S. T. Joshi (Collected Essays and Journalism of… (2018) 1 copy
Writings in the Smart Set, Volume 5: 1918-1919: Edited and Annotated by S. T. Joshi (Collected Essays and Journalism of… (2018) 1 copy
Writings in the Smart Set, Volume 2: 1912-1913: Edited and Annotated by S. T. Joshi (Collected Essays and Journalism of… (2018) 1 copy
Writings in the Smart Set, Volume 1: 1908-1911: Edited and Annotated by S. T. Joshi (Collected Essays and Journalism of… (2018) 1 copy
Ventures Into Verse: Being Various Ballads, Ballades, Rondeaux, Triolets, Songs, Quatrains, Odes and Roundels (Classic… (2017) 1 copy
The American Language Reference Library -The American Language, Fourth Edition, The American Language Supplement One,… (1960) 1 copy
Associated Works
The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists (2000) — Contributor, some editions — 550 copies
The Master Builder / The Wild Duck / Peer Gynt / Hedda Gabler / Pillars of Society / A Doll's House / The League of… (1934) — Introduction — 262 copies
The 50 Funniest American Writers: An Anthology of Humor from Mark Twain to The Onion (2011) — Contributor — 244 copies
The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now (2008) — Contributor — 153 copies
An American Album: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper's Magazine (2000) — Contributor — 131 copies
The Glorious American Essay: One Hundred Essays from Colonial Times to the Present (2020) — Contributor — 81 copies
The world of law; a treasury of great writing about and in the law, short stories, plays, essays, accounts, letters,… (1960) — Contributor — 54 copies
Published and Perished: Memoria, Eulogies, and Remembrances of American Writers (2002) — Contributor — 37 copies
Wings, Vol. 6, No. 2, February 1932 — Contributor — 1 copy
The Reviewer, Volume II, Numbers 1-6 (October 1921-March 1922) — Contributor — 1 copy
The Reviewer, Volume III, Numbers 1-12 (April 1922-July 1923) — Contributor — 1 copy
The Yale Review: A National Quarterly (July 1920) — Contributor — 1 copy
Essays by James Huneker — Editor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Mencken, H. L.
- Other names
- Drayham, William (pseudonym)
Hatteras, Owen (shared pseudonym)
Mencken, Henry Louis (birth name) - Birthdate
- 1880-09-12
- Date of death
- 1956-01-29
- Burial location
- London Park Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Place of death
- Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Places of residence
- Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Education
- Baltimore Polytechnic Institute
Cosmopolitan University - Occupations
- journalist
editor - Relationships
- Mencken, August, Jr. (brother)
Dreiser, Theodore (friend)
Joyce, James (friend)
Haardt, Sara (wife) - Organizations
- Baltimore Morning Herald
Baltimore Sun
The Smart Set
The American Mercury
Members
Reviews
Lists
Catalog (1)
Art of Reading (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 191
- Also by
- 48
- Members
- 6,867
- Popularity
- #3,563
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 80
- ISBNs
- 348
- Languages
- 8
- Favorited
- 52
If you are of a sensitive nature, you might be offended by Mencken’s well-known bigotry, but he does not display it openly here. It is just occasionally slightly exposed. You might not even notice it unless you are an American of non-English ancestry.
Of some interest were:
Mencken explains the difference between the meaning of the expression to jew someone in the US and England on p. 124 (Who knew?).
There is a list of Americanisms that derive from commercial products. Some are surprising and some that anyone would have known in 1936 have disappeared, e.g. uneeda.
There is a list of common short words that were selected and used by newspaper editors for their headlines that sometimes popularized the word, e.g.
Ace. In the sense of expert or champion it came in during the World War. It has since been extended to mean any person who shows any ponderable proficiency in whatever he undertakes to do…
Blast. It has quite displaced explosion in headlines…
Car. It is rapidly displacing all the older synonyms for automobile, including even auto….
He discusses the creation of American verbs in various ways, e.g. to phone … to tiptoe (for to walk tiptoe) … to reminisce … to orate … to author, and others using -ize and a proper name which are now almost lost to us, e.g. to hooverize (introduced in 1917 and included in Webster’s New International Dictionary in 1934) and to oslerize appearing after a famous oration by Dr. William Osler in 1905.
Along with other true or pseudo-abbreviations Mencken mentions the American expression O.K., which he comments was already used internationally in 1936, and he discusses its various false origin histories.
There is an extensive discussion of the differences between American and English school terminology that I found useful since I never understand what it means if a character in a novel is in their third standard, or what the differences are among an usher, a master, a pro-chancellor, or a high steward.
Various American vs English euphemisms are mentioned including nerts that I mostly see in old comic strips, but was apparently very widely used in 1936. He mentions some odd euphemisms that have been used in newspapers where gonorrhea, syphilis, venereal, and even virgin were prohibited. In 1933 the new treatment of giving a patient malaria to treat tertiary syphilis was invented (the fever is beneficial; the inventor won the Nobel prize in Medicine). The New York Times spoke of it only as a dread form of insanity caused by a blood disease. Mencken tells us that in Appalachia and the Ozarks certain common words were avoided in every-day speech regardless of context. Examples include bed, tail and leg!
There is an interesting discussion of various expletives and the history of their development, e.g. hell and, in England, bloody.
In a fantastic discovery (!), I learned that the word insignia is, in Latin, the plural of insigne, and that it was formerly considered inappropriate to use insignia as a singular noun, much as some decry data or criteria as a singular.… (more)