Marion Elizabeth Rodgers
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195072389
- eISBN:
- 9780199787982
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195072389.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
With the advent of the Progressive era, Mencken began to question American attitudes towards emotion, conformity, and Puritanism. This was brought home to him when he watched William Jennings Bryan ...
More
With the advent of the Progressive era, Mencken began to question American attitudes towards emotion, conformity, and Puritanism. This was brought home to him when he watched William Jennings Bryan speak at the 1912 Democratic National Convention. Mencken takes a trip to Germany rekindle his deep attachment to the land of his forebears. Influencing him in this regard were his conversations with friends, Percival Pollard and James Huneker, both writers who had influenced his reading as an adolescent. Mencken began to write a series of articles that examined Americans. He also continued his work at The Smart Set magazine, and met his future publisher, Alfred Knopf, as the war in Europe got closer to America.Less
With the advent of the Progressive era, Mencken began to question American attitudes towards emotion, conformity, and Puritanism. This was brought home to him when he watched William Jennings Bryan speak at the 1912 Democratic National Convention. Mencken takes a trip to Germany rekindle his deep attachment to the land of his forebears. Influencing him in this regard were his conversations with friends, Percival Pollard and James Huneker, both writers who had influenced his reading as an adolescent. Mencken began to write a series of articles that examined Americans. He also continued his work at The Smart Set magazine, and met his future publisher, Alfred Knopf, as the war in Europe got closer to America.
Marion Elizabeth Rodgers
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195072389
- eISBN:
- 9780199787982
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195072389.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter chronicles Mencken's rebellion against his father; he plot to his escape from working at the family cigar factory to become a newspaperman. Unable to do so, Mencken retreats into the ...
More
This chapter chronicles Mencken's rebellion against his father; he plot to his escape from working at the family cigar factory to become a newspaperman. Unable to do so, Mencken retreats into the world of books. He is influenced by the works of iconoclasts such as Thomas Henry Huxley, James Huneker, and Percival Pollard. During this period of despair, he never guessed that some of these same men would later become his friends. The death of August Mencken in 1899 left Henry Louis Mencken finally free to pursue journalism, “the maddest, gladdest, damndest existence ever enjoyed by mortal youth”.Less
This chapter chronicles Mencken's rebellion against his father; he plot to his escape from working at the family cigar factory to become a newspaperman. Unable to do so, Mencken retreats into the world of books. He is influenced by the works of iconoclasts such as Thomas Henry Huxley, James Huneker, and Percival Pollard. During this period of despair, he never guessed that some of these same men would later become his friends. The death of August Mencken in 1899 left Henry Louis Mencken finally free to pursue journalism, “the maddest, gladdest, damndest existence ever enjoyed by mortal youth”.
