AUDIOBOOK
Mencken: The American Iconoclast
The Life and Times of the Bad Boy of Baltimore
Marion Elizabeth Rodgers5
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About
H. L. Mencken, the twentieth century's greatest newspaper journalist, a famous wit, and a fearless iconoclast, fought for civil liberties and free speech yet held paradoxical views of minorities and was conflicted as a German-American during World War II. Marion Rodgers frames the public man and the private man within the context of his era, and covers the many love affairs that made him known as the "German Valentino,” his happy marriage at age fifty to Sarah Haardt, and his pivotal role in introducing James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Langston Hughes to the American literary scene.
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Reviews
"In this splendid biography…Rodgers juggles the dense narrative of Mencken's life and times with considerable dexterity, while also providing a glimpse into his very private world…His was one of the key American literary lives of the 20th century and Rodgers has, quite simply, done him proud."
London Independent
"H.L. Mencken…has always been a hard nut to crack. Now Marion Elizabeth Rodgers has, for once and for all, just about done it...In clear and forceful prose he would have approved of, Rodgers gives Mencken his rightful place in American literature and life. Her book is...captivating."
Los Angeles Times
"[Mencken] single-handedly ushered American letters into the 20th century…and he did all of it in a swaggering, sarcastic and yet elegant prose style that remains-or ought to remain, anyway-the model for every columnist, critic and blog-militant in this famously polarized age…Let us hope that this comprehensive study of Mencken's life introduces a new generation of readers to this enemy of falseho
Washington Post