The Free Lance, May-August 1911: Edited and Annotated by S. T. Joshi (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781673712292)

On May 8, 1911, H. L. Mencken began a column in the Baltimore Evening Sun entitled "The World in Review." The next day he retitled it "The Free Lance"-and continued writing the column six days a week for the next four and a half years. This enormous body of work, totalling about 1200 columns and amounting to 1.5 million words, is an incredibly rich storehouse of Mencken's opinions on a wide array of topics. In some columns he addresses serious issues: the distressing prevalence of typhoid in the larger American cities, including Baltimore; the pestiferious influence of the Anti-Saloon League in promoting prohibition of alcoholic beverages; and all manner of political malfeasance both locally and nationally. But in most of his columns he displays his pungent satirical wit, lampooning poetasters, self-righteous moralists, and political and literary hacks of every description. In several columns Mencken begins outlining his views of the "American language," the distinctive slang that Americans have adopted as a departure from formal English; Mencken later wrote a landmark treatise on the subject. Throughout these columns, H. L. Mencken displays the perspicacity and penchant for humor and satire that made him the greatest journalist of his day.

Author: S. T. Joshi,H. L. Mencken
ISBN-10: 1673712290
ISBN-13: 9781673712292
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 12/09/2019
Pages: 318
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.03lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.71d