File:H-L-Mencken-1928.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
H. L. Mencken
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American journalist and writer (1880–1956)
OverviewAI-generated
H. L. Mencken was an American satirist, literary critic, essayist, and autobiographer. Born Henry Mencken in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 12, 1880, he was a German American who identified as an atheist and held right-libertarian political views. He wrote in English and was influenced by Rudyard Kipling, Friedrich Nietzsche, Joseph Conrad, and Ambrose Bierce.
Mencken authored 614 works, including *A book of prefaces* (Opus 13), *Heathen days*, *社会的批評*, *A subtreasury of American humor*, and *The American language*. His archives are held at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Princeton University Library, and the New York Public Library Main Branch. He died in Baltimore on January 29, 1956.
Synthesized by Vinony from 25 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, TMDb. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1880
- Died
- 1956
- Works
- 614
Top works
- Editorial
- A book of prefaces (Opus 13)
- Heathen days
- 社会的批評
- A subtreasury of American humor
via Open Library + Wikidata
Film & TV
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Known for
- American Experience — Self1988
- Camille: The Fate of a Coquette — Andrew Volstead1926
via TMDB
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Henry
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Baltimore
- Place of death
- Baltimore
- Occupation
- linguist
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Religion
- atheism
- Image
- H-L-Mencken-1928.jpg
- Political ideology
- right-libertarianism
Show 9 more facts
- Commons category
- H. L. Mencken
- date of birth
- 1880-09-12
- date of death
- 1956-01-29
- topic's main category
- Category:H. L. Mencken
- archives at
- New York Public Library Main Branch
- writing language
- English language
- influenced by
- Albert Jay Nock
- Commons Creator page
- Henry Louis Mencken
- ethnic group
- German Americans
via Wikidata · CC0
~33 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes Trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also earned him attention. The term Menckenian has entered multiple dictionaries to describe anything of or pertaining to Mencken, including his combative rhetorical and prose styles.
As a scholar, Mencken is known for The American Language, a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States. As an admirer of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, he was an outspoken opponent of organized religion, theism, censorship, populism, Prohibition, and representative democracy, the last of which he viewed as a system in which inferior men dominated their superiors. Mencken was a supporter of scientific progress and was critical of osteopathy and chiropractic. He was also an open critic of economics.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “H. L. Mencken” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.