» Mencken: The American Iconoclast

Mencken: The American Iconoclast Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Missing Mencken
Comment: What a disappointment. Often a writer's life presents a difficult challenge to a biographer, as the life is so often a solitary one. But there was no such problem with Mencken who seemed to be everywhere in the first half of the 20th century. Let's hope the publication of this does not dissuade anyone from attempting to write the definitive biography of Mencken because this is clearly not it.

It feels as if it was written in accordance with a rigid, cookie cutter outline that allowed a chapter for every aspect of the author's life, and permits neither judgements or digressions. Redecorating his Baltimore house is given the same weight as the Scopes trial. Mencken very quickly went from a cub reporter at a Baltimore newspaper to the most famous reporter in America, but it seems to just naturally happen, almost accidentially.

Also, the author is somewhat of an apologist for Mencken. The nation's top reporter missed the finale of the biggest story of his career when he left the Scopes trial early. As a result, he missed Clarence Darrow's devastating cross examination of William Jennings Bryan, when, as the joke goes, Darrow proved the theroy of evolution by making a monkey out of William Jennings Bryan. The author accepts Mencken's explaination that he was needed at the paper and moves on. Also, Mencken's German ancestry seems to be the cause of a blind spot during the two World Wars tht occurred during this lifetime.

Just not a very strong biography about an author whose life almost cries out for one NOW.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: very enjoyable, very well researched, somewhat uncritical
Comment: A few weeks before graduating from Goucher College, Marion Elizabeth Rodgers stumbled accross the papers of H.L. Mencken's wife. One thing led to another, and the eventual result was this long, meticulously researched, and very enjoyable biography of one of the most interesting Americans to live in the last century.

My purpose is not to regurgitate H.L. Mencken's prodigious and fascinating life and works, from being the first lexicographer of the American language to his phenomenal career as a thinker and wit, etc., etc. which Marion Rodgers so ably covers. Suffice it to write that Mencken's cogitations have greatly enriched my life.

The one quibble that I have with this book is that she clearly is captivated by Mencken's charm - few aren't - perhaps to the point that she elides a few probing questions about the less happy aspects of Mencken's Werke. Mencken lived to write invective and provoke; many of the targets of his acidic pen, such as creationists, cult leaders, quack healers, racists, warmongers and more deserved all the sarcasm he sent there way. Mencken even established a commission to determine which state of the union was the most backward and least hospitable; the conclusion was for Arkansas, perhaps not coincidentally, the Arkansas legislature passed a motion urging Mencken's deportation. People, after all, decide what they do and in what they believe, and many people are quicker to learn when humor is used to reinforce an idea. I am sure that his harangues did a lot of good.

Mencken, however, went a further, and though he was far more racially tolerant than many of his contemporaries, wrote tracts of invective against different races, which employed stereotypes that are not accepted in polite society today. Rather than insinuate that Mencken either disproved his ideas by his deeds, or that these ideas were a child of his times, I think this book would have been a lot more interesting had it asked whether it was fair for Mencken to turn his caustic pen lose on people for things which they could not change, and for which they were not responsible. Even in his day, I would imagine, it was hitting below the belt line to do so.

If you want a great, but mildly adulatory, biography of the Sage of Baltimore, look no further.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Mencken is as relevant today as he ever was
Comment: Remarkably, so much of what Mencken warned about during his day is applicable today. If you were to read his columns and replace FDR with Bush you would swear he was talking about Bush and the neocons. The similarities leading up to both world wars are eerily similar to today's world. Rodgers does an excellent job providing as many details as one cares to take in.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Champion of Individual Rights
Comment: Marion Rodgers has written a thorough biography of H. L. Mencken. He was a man of many facets, and they were all turned on. He was a champion of individual rights, and one wonders what he might have to say with the present political climate in this country. Although he often projected a blustry disposition, he also demonstrated a tender side as well. He appeared to be a confirmed bachelor, but he did finally marry while enjoying the company of numerous women who tried to make him their "catch". He also showed that he was quick with a quip with such examples as "golf and idiocy are the same word." There is also his well known definition of puritanism as "The haunting fear that someone somewhere may be happy." I found it interesting that although Mencken stated he was an agnostic, he would refer to God and heaven at various times. During his old age he lamented the fact that there was so much more writing he would have wanted to do and couldn't now that his health had deserted him. I rate the book four stars based on my interest level. I had first heard about H. L. Mencken through his definition of puritanism, and felt it would be interesting to know more about the man. The book was a long read, but it was worth the while.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Superb biography on a master of civil rights and language...
Comment: Mencken has long been one of my favorite persons to quote. Ever since I got my first quote book when I was about 11, and have been attracted to those who are able to say so much in such superb, yet small ways...Mencken has always been up there with Twain, Ambrose Bierce, my scientists Einstein and Feynman, Will Rodgers. Notice something about this group? They all lived within the same time period: around the time my parents were growing up. Yet, I am sure if I had been alive then with my family's upbringing, I may never have been introduced to the writings of these men, especially Mencken who wrote for magazines, journals and the newspapers.

I didn't know very much about him, but grabbed this book as soon as I could. Yeah, he was a greatly flawed individual, especially in his relationships with women, and with friends. Show me a 'great' man who wasn't flawed in significant ways. But here was a man who knew how to draw attention to the important problems of the time. There were a great many similarities between WWI and this time period with the Iraquian War. The wars were not the same, except in being run by those far from the front, and being paid for by the young men of our country. A lot of the other stuff has not changed. Stupid men in places of political power, such as the ambassador to Germany at that time, stated things that were totally untrue, but helped to draw our country into that war. Not that we didn't need to be involved in that war...but like Mencken, I have the absolute need to hear the absolute truth from my politicians, and from the media (which often doesn't happen now). Many of the civil rights that we take for granted, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from fear in our own homes are again at risk. Mencken did what he was in the power to do; reach the minds of Americans through print and put into plain and poignant words the facts regarding our freedoms.

Mencken stood up for the rights of African-Americans during a very dangerous time period, when lynching was an accepted form of justice in the U.S. and when the KKK had way too much power. This from a white man who lived well in Baltimore. Not only that, but he helped to bring to the fore the writings of important African-American literature, and made possible the future writings of those today such as August Wilson and Maya Angelou (probably spelling this wrong).

Mencken was like so many at the time, existing with blinders on his eyes concerning Hitler and his ability to control mobs. Like so many, including most Jews in Europe, Mencken thought Hitler was such a crackpot that no one could possibly take him seriously, but he didn't allow for the fact that the Allies devastated Germany, leaving her in a position where mob leadership was accepted.

This is one of the most exquisitely written biographies I have ever read. Definitely up there with our local Pittsburgh favorite, David McCullough. I will wait with curiousity for the next biography from this fine writer. And I wait for someone within the media who has the ability that Mencken, Bierce, Twain, and Rodgers had to qualify our time with their journalistic bent and literature...

Karen Sadler

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