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Newspaper Days, 1899-1906 : Volume 2 of Mencken's Autobiography (H. L. Mencken's Autobiography #2)
by
H.L. Mencken
In the second volume of his autobiography, Mencken recalls his early years as a reporter. On January 16, 1899, H.L. Mencken applied for a job with the Baltimore Morning Herald, much to the editor's amusement. But Mencken persisted, and came back to the offices night after night until finally, in February, the editor sent him out into a blizzard to see if anything worth pri
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Paperback
,
336 pages
Published
July 30th 1996
by The Johns Hopkins University Press
(first published 1941)
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I immensely enjoyed this part of H.L. Mencken's memoirs, reminiscing about his days as a young reporter and editor in Baltimore at the turn of the last century.
Of course, more time had passed between his era and when I started in the newspaper business than the time I've been in the business altogether, but still, there were so many aspects of the profession that were familiar to me. I came into the business in the late 1960s, just at the end of an era in which most reporters were not college e ...more
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This might of been an interesting book if Mencken was able to rein in his outsized ego. In one account, Mencken, a young newspaperman living in Baltimore and whose only other experience was working in his Uncle's cigar business, gets a jump on the other papers by astutely describing a naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War which has yet to take place by sheer deductive reasoning.
I think to enjoy Mencken, you have to think as much of him as he did himself. And that's a tall order.
I think to enjoy Mencken, you have to think as much of him as he did himself. And that's a tall order.
NEWSPAPER DAYS. (1941). H. L. Mancken. ****.
Although Mencken sneaks in more about his boyhood days, this volume of his autobiography does focus on his newspaper career. He did hop around a lot, which tells you that he had the respect of his fellow members of the press. There are lots of stories here that I burn to relate, but I’ll keep it down to a few. One of the characters of the time was a man named Frank Thomas. Frank was a Baltimore press agent, and managed to turn most events to his own go ...more
Although Mencken sneaks in more about his boyhood days, this volume of his autobiography does focus on his newspaper career. He did hop around a lot, which tells you that he had the respect of his fellow members of the press. There are lots of stories here that I burn to relate, but I’ll keep it down to a few. One of the characters of the time was a man named Frank Thomas. Frank was a Baltimore press agent, and managed to turn most events to his own go ...more
Probably more for real Mencken fans than newbies. Full of long-forgotten people who made deep impressions on Mencken 100 years ago, when Mencken was a newspaper reporter and managing editor but none achieved his stature. Nice tribute, but frequently reads like a disconnected laundry list. Some good insights, but not the reading pleasure of the first in the trilogy, "Happy Days."
Mencken's acerbic wit comes through, and the stuff on how turn of the century print journalism functioned on a day-to-day level is very interesting. But the material doesn't really allow mencken's skills as an essayist or a journalist to shine through to full effect.
Be aware that Mencken is very much a man of his time, bigoted, misognystic, parochial. If you can get past that, this is a terrific book, funny, smart, and you can practically smell the Baltimore waterfront and taste the oyster stew.
A tangy and giddy memoir of Mencken's days as a journalist. A charming view into the good old days of journalism, filled with wry anecdotes about Baltimore and the newspaper business, before the days of radio and TV.
in a time before journalism schools,most reporters were simply failed novelists. the writing was so much better. and the coverage was at least as good as we have it now.
mencken was the best of his generation.
mencken was the best of his generation.
Timeless writing and a stark reminder of how news gathering has withered to a souless enterprise.
if you have any interest in print journalism, this book is agreat look back
Baltimoreans, writers, fans of made-up words will love this book
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Henry Louis "H.L." Mencken
became one of the most influential and prolific journalists in America in the 1920s and '30s, writing about all the shams and con artists in the world. He attacked chiropractors and the Ku Klux Klan, politicians and other journalists. Most of all, he attacked Puritan morality. He called Puritanism, "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."
At the height o ...more
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“I have seen something of the horrors of war, and much too much of the worse horrors of peace.”
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