The Sage of Baltimore

As is occasionally the case, I owe (and I hope I speak for his Washington Post readers) a debt of gratitude (whatever that is) to Jonathan Yardley for apprising me of the publication of Mencken on Mencken: A New Collection of Autobiographical Writings, edited by Mencken scholar S.T. Joshi (Louisiana State University Press).

Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956), who practiced his unique style of journalism in Baltimore when newspapers and magazines were important, is a singular figure in America’s literary history. He was a scathing commentator and a fascinating stylist whose wit and style never shone brighter than when he was recounting his own life, as this 1905 biographical sketch exhibits:

Mencken weighs 172 pounds, is 5 feet 10 inches in height and not beautiful. His chief amusement, after reading, is piano-playing, this he does very crudely. He takes no exercise except walking and is a moderate eater and drinker. He sometimes drinks as little as one bottle of beer a week, though this doesn’t happen very often.

S.T. Joshi anthologizes 44 of what he asserts are the best of Mencken’s previously uncollected autobiographical pieces (contrary to the publisher’s count, Yardley claims there are 50, but hey, nobody’s perfect), complete with annotations and a Menckenian/Menckenesque glossary.

Yardley offers an overview:

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