Professor H L Mencken

Writings in the Smart Set, Volume 8 Professor H L Mencken

In this final volume of his writings from the Smart Set, we see H. L. Mencken at the top of his form as critic, satirist, and commentator. Among his many trenchant reviews are assessments of Sinclair Lewis (Babbitt), D. H. Lawrence, Sherwood Anderson, Willa Cather, and others, even including discussions of books on baseball and a new translation of the Bible. In his final column, "Fifteen Years," Mencken reflects on his decade and a half of reviewing. In their ongoing "Répétition Générale" column, Mencken and his coeditor, George Jean Nathan, continue to probe controversial subjects, from the Ku Klux Klan to Prohibition. Particularly noteworthy is a "conversation" between Mencken and Nathan "on the darker races," dealing with the prospects of interracial marriage in the United States. All in all, Mencken's writings in the Smart Set constitute some of the most vibrant magazine writing of this period, and it has now been gathered in one edition for the first time.