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  • Mencken

  • the American Iconoclast: The Life and Times of the Bad Boy of Baltimore
  • By: Marion Elizabeth Rodgers
  • Narrated by: Patrick Cullen
  • Length: 24 hrs and 13 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (10 ratings)
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Mencken cover art

Mencken

By: Marion Elizabeth Rodgers
Narrated by: Patrick Cullen
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Summary

H. L. Mencken, the 20th century's greatest newspaper journalist, a famous wit, and a fearless iconoclast, fought for civil liberties and free speech yet held paradoxical views of minorities and was conflicted as a German-American during World War II.

Marion Rodgers frames the public man and the private man within the context of his era, and covers the many love affairs that made him known as "The German Valentino," as well as his happy marriage at age 50 to Sarah Haardt, and his pivotal role in introducing James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Langston Hughes to the American literary scene.
©2005 Marion Elizabeth Rodgers (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Journalists, Editors & Publishers Words, Language & Grammar Writing & Publishing United States
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Critic reviews

"A superb study of the life of the cigar-chomping controversialist, civil libertarian and muckraker who remains the patron saint of journalists." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Drawing on research in more than 60 archives (including previously unseen private collections in the U.S. and in Germany), exclusive interviews with Mencken's friends and his love letters, this is a meticulous portrait of one of the most original and complicated men in American letters." (Publishers Weekly)

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Tedious

Here is man who lead a remarkable life but the book is prosaic and tedious. It's hard to know if it was the writing or the reading or both. I didn't finish it.

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