{"product_id":"the-free-lance-may-august-1911-s-t-joshi-9781673712292","title":"The Free Lance, May-August 1911: Edited and Annotated by S. T. Joshi","description":"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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e S. T. Joshi,H. L. Mencken\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1673712290\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781673712292\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/09\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 318\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.03lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.71d","brand":"S. T. Joshi","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48800480821503,"sku":"9781673712292","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-free-lance-may-august-1911-s-t-joshi-9781673712292","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}