Famous as a political, social and cultural gadfly, journalist and essayist H.L. Mencken was unafraid to speak his mind on controversial topics and to express his views in a deliberately provocative manner. This is a collection of work previously only published in newspapers and magazines.

"By far the Mercury's most popular section was a regular feature Mencken entitled "Americana." This department featured a wide assortment of newspaper clippings, wire reports, church bulletins, publicity releases, and other sources which depicted various individuals and organizations - frequently of rural origin - in the throes of some foolish action which Mencken deemed ludicrous enough for its inclusion."--BOOK JACKET.

The American Language, first published in 1919, is H. L. Mencken's book about the English language as spoken in the United States. Mencken was inspired by "the argot of the colored waiters" in Washington, as well as one of his favorite authors, Mark Twain, and his experiences on the streets of Baltimore. In 1902, Mencken remarked on the "queer words which go into the making of 'United States.'" The book was preceded by several columns in The Evening Sun. Mencken eventually asked "Why doesn't some painstaking pundit attempt a grammar of the American language... English, that is, as spoken by the great masses of the plain people of this fair land?" It would appear that he answered his own question. In the tradition of Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary, Mencken wanted to defend "Americanisms" against a steady stream of English critics, who usually isolated Americanisms as borderline barbarous perversions of the mother tongue. Mencken assaulted the prescriptive grammar of these critics and American "schoolmarms", arguing, like Samuel Johnson in the preface to his dictionary, that language evolves independently of textbooks. The book discusses the beginnings of "American" variations from "English", the spread of these variations, American names and slang over the course of its 374 pages. According to Mencken, American English was more colorful, vivid, and creative than its British counterpart.

Having edited several other volumes of American writer Mencken's (1880-1956) writings, Joshi here reprints his book reviews from their original appearance in the Smart Set, American Mercury, and other magazines and newspapers between 1908 and the 1930s. He includes four essays reflecting on reviewing books. The reviews are in sections on establishing the canon, some worthy second-raters, trade goods, and thoughts on literary criticism. Only names and titles are indexed. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Previously published: New York: A.A. Knopf, 1921.