Beschreibung:

MENCKEN, Henry Louis (1880-1956), Journalist, literary critic . An archive of 113 typed letters signed ("H. L. Mencken") to David Warren Ryder, 1925-1955 (many undated), 8vos, on stationery of American Mercury, The Smart Set, personal stationery . "COMMUNISTS, FASCISTS, NEW DEALERS, AND OTHER SUCH FANATICS...I AM AGAINST THEM ALL" A lively archive of letters from the great critic to a San Francisco writer. The acerbic Mencken bashes many targets in this correspondence, from Presidents to Puritans, censors, "Communists, Fascists, New Dealers, and other such fanatics...I am against them all," even the entire region of Southern California, which he calls "a natural paradise for idiots." He hoped he could "live long enough to see the Japs take Los Angeles and put the inhabitants to the sword." (20 March, 2 December [no year] ca. mid 1920s). On politics, his predictions and perceptions were just as flamboyant: 22 July 1931: "One hears very little Hoover talk in these parts, but when the time comes I believe that he'll be reelected. It is difficult, at best, to beat a sitting Republican president. To beat him with such a candidate as Franklin Roosevelt is practically impossible." 27 December 1938: "If Roosevelt and his goons can manage it, we'll certainly be in some war or other before the end of the year. They seem, unfortunately, to be unable to make up their minds as to the enemy. One day it is Hitler, and the next day it is the Japs. Perhaps they'll end up by taking both together. If so, the poor taxpayer will be ready for the coroner." When war broke out in 1939 he writes: 8 September 1939: "My guess is that Hitler's goose is cooked unless he can dispose of the British grand fleet....It has amused me to observe that the American government is once more pulling hard for England, and making the old hypocritical pretense of neutrality...." Mencken's prominence faded during the 1940s, as he explains to Ryder. 3 September 1946: "I have done no writing for newspapers since January 1941. It was obvious by that time that Roosevelt would horn into the war, and I was disinclined to run head-first into the censorship." He and Ryder kept corresponding until Mencken's death in 1956. He even offered Ryder some reflections on the afterlife: 15 April [no year]: "The news grows more and more encouraging. First, Dr. Conan Doyle announces that Heaven is free of lubricious women--a boon to bachelors. Now comes word that there is no rheumatism there. All I ask further is the assurance that the American Legion is prohibited." Together 113 items . (113)