On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe - Paperback

by H. L. Mencken (Author)

With a style that combined biting sarcasm with the "language of the free lunch counter," Henry Louis Mencken shook politics and politicians for nearly half a century. Now, fifty years after Mencken's death, the Johns Hopkins University Press announces The Buncombe Collection, newly packaged editions of nine Mencken classics: Happy Days, Heathen Days, Newspaper Days, Prejudices, Treatise on the Gods, On Politics, Thirty-Five Years of Newspaper Work, Minority Report, and A Second Mencken Chrestomathy.

With a style that combined biting sarcasm with the "language of the free lunch counter," Henry Louis Mencken shook politics and politicians for nearly half a century. Now, fifty years after Mencken's death, the Johns Hopkins University Press announces The Buncombe Collection, newly packaged editions of nine Mencken classics: Happy Days, Heathen Days, Newspaper Days, Prejudices, Treatise on the Gods, On Politics, Thirty-Five Years of Newspaper Work, Minority Report, and A Second Mencken Chrestomathy.

These seventy political pieces from the 1920s and 1930s are drawn from Mencken's famous Monday columns in the Baltimore Evening Sun.

Back Jacket

With a style that combined biting sarcasm with the "language of the free lunch counter", Mencken shook politics and politicians for nearly half a century. The political arena afforded Mencken a special opportunity to showcase his talents. He despised hypocrisy and found numerous easy targets among politicians. But while he could be merciless in attacking local and national leaders, Mencken always interspersed his scathing commentaries with entertaining exaggeration and high humor. This collection of seventy political pieces, drawn from Mencken's famous Monday columns in the Baltimore Evening Sun during the twenties and thirties, shows the "Sage of Baltimore" at his satirical best. While social attitudes may have changed, the value of Mencken's words on American politics offers us a timeless perspective.

Author Biography

Henry Louis Mencken was born in Baltimore in 1880 and remained a lifelong resident. Opinionated and controversial, he wrote columns for the Baltimore Evening Sun that earned him a national reputation. He died in 1956.