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/9780195072389.003.0019
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
The war's impact on free speech at home, along with Attorney General Mitchell Palmer's brutal raids on suspected radicals, intensified Mencken's belief in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But ...
More
The war's impact on free speech at home, along with Attorney General Mitchell Palmer's brutal raids on suspected radicals, intensified Mencken's belief in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But with America at war, the New York Evening Mail closed to him, and The Smart Set in peril, Mencken took on a neutral subject that would forever after identify him as a uniquely American voice: a study of The American Language. Simultaneously, he launched Prejudices, a series of essays attacking the Genteel Tradition in literature and intellectual cowardice. After the war, he returned to the Baltimore Sun, his books were widely embraced, and he became hailed as an important new critic. In 1919, Mencken came to the realization that he lived not in a literary age, but a fiercely political age.Less
The war's impact on free speech at home, along with Attorney General Mitchell Palmer's brutal raids on suspected radicals, intensified Mencken's belief in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But with America at war, the New York Evening Mail closed to him, and The Smart Set in peril, Mencken took on a neutral subject that would forever after identify him as a uniquely American voice: a study of The American Language. Simultaneously, he launched Prejudices, a series of essays attacking the Genteel Tradition in literature and intellectual cowardice. After the war, he returned to the Baltimore Sun, his books were widely embraced, and he became hailed as an important new critic. In 1919, Mencken came to the realization that he lived not in a literary age, but a fiercely political age.
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/9780195072389.003.0022
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
With Mencken's acerbic column and a new staff, the Baltimore Sun becomes a leading chronicler of national news. Mencken took great pleasure in covering politics, but his reputation as a catalyst in ...
More
With Mencken's acerbic column and a new staff, the Baltimore Sun becomes a leading chronicler of national news. Mencken took great pleasure in covering politics, but his reputation as a catalyst in American letters also rose in stature as The American Language became a bestseller. With Prejudices: Second Series, Mencken became the instigator of the Southern renaissance. Black intellectuals, among them James Weldon Johnson and W. E. B. Du Bois welcomed Mencken as an important force in the Harlem renaissance. However, just as Mencken was being hailed as a major influence on a new generation of American writers, his old mentor, James Huneker, died.Less
With Mencken's acerbic column and a new staff, the Baltimore Sun becomes a leading chronicler of national news. Mencken took great pleasure in covering politics, but his reputation as a catalyst in American letters also rose in stature as The American Language became a bestseller. With Prejudices: Second Series, Mencken became the instigator of the Southern renaissance. Black intellectuals, among them James Weldon Johnson and W. E. B. Du Bois welcomed Mencken as an important force in the Harlem renaissance. However, just as Mencken was being hailed as a major influence on a new generation of American writers, his old mentor, James Huneker, died.
