Word: menckenisms
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Said Ubiquitous Critic Mencken: "Very few of the immortal creators have escaped periods of neglect and contumely. Shakespeare, as everyone knows, was regarded as a second-rater during part of the 18th Century, and various imbeciles set themselves to the job of editing and improving him. Even Bach had his twilight, and it took a Mendelssohn to rescue him. But only fools have ever questioned the mightiness of Beethoven-and not many fools...
Upon no subject is the American Mercury better fitted or more logically inclined to inveigh than upon U. S. journalism. It depends for much of its copy upon newsgatherers and editors facile enough to catch the style, and cynical enough to enjoy the viewpoint, of Editor Henry Louis Mencken. Six of its 14 non-fiction articles for April were by newspaper men and women. Few months go by without Editor Mencken's discovering some fresh way to reprove the profession in which he got his start and training and of which he has been what he likes to call...
Should the Associated Press elect to release an account, colorful or otherwise of the life and works of Editor Mencken, it could draw him to the attention of scores of millions of people. Therein lies its responsibility, a full sense of which Editor Mencken was moved to drive home. The American Mercury's account of the life and works of the Associated Press, on the other hand, reached only some 75,000 persons. These would be a great many if they really represented the "civilized minority" to which the magazine addressed itself at its founding three years...
...American Mercury was founded in 1924 to give Editor Mencken scope for his vituperation of the U. S. scene. He and Drama Critic George Jean Nathan had become financially comfortable, not through Smart Set which they edited with more thought than thanks, but through two little aphrodisiacs, La Parisienne and Saucy Stories, founded for revenge and sold at fat profits. The revenge was upon society...
...like Lord Bryce are no longer read ("too longwinded"). Brilliant specialists like Thomas Beer are chuckled over, then dismissed as satirists ("too clever"). Lewis Mumford steps forward, more penetrating than a Van Wyck Brooks, more coherent than a Ralph Adams Cram, far more mature, mannerly and historical than any Mencken, with a book* that is badly needed. He succinctly, brilliantly yet mellowly, summarizes U. S. culture to date...