| Quotes | Biographies | Works by HLM | Criticism | Bibliographies | Letters and Correspondence | Related |
A recent query of the Enoch Pratt Library’s catalog with the search word “Mencken” got 262 hits, showing that the Menckenophile can spend a good portion of his life reading works by and about the Sage. The list presented here is greatly reduced in scale. The emphasis is on books in print, with a few out-of-print titles included because of their merit. The out-of-print works should be available in any library worthy of the name.
A good start would be The Vintage Mencken, compiled by Alistair Cooke. The book’s forty-nine selections give a wide sampling of Mencken’s work, ranging from excerpts from the nostalgic Days books to examples of Mencken’s literary criticism, political essays, reporting, commentary and more. It includes the essays one would count as the “Best of Mencken”.
The reader who finds The Vintage Mencken agreeable is ready to move on to the Chrestomathy, HLM’s own selection from his writings of "material that continues to be of more or less current interest". This work contains 240 selections and includes several pieces, such as "A Neglected Anniversary" (“The bathtub Hoax”), for which Mencken is famous.
Mencken’s writings still retain the power to offend modern sensibilities. The thick skinned may want to move on to Minority Report, a collection of 432 pieces selected by Mencken from his notebooks.
To continue further, one may select an interest and see what Mencken wrote upon it. The table below lists only a few items in each category.
| Drink | The Ombibulous Mr. Mencken |
| Humor | A Book of Burlesques |
| Journalism | Impossible H.L.Mencken |
| Liberty | The Editor, The Bluenose and the Prostitute |
| Literary Criticism | H.L. Mencken's Smart Set Criticism |
| Music | Mencken On Music |
| Nostalgic memoirs | Happy Days: 1880-1892 Newspaper Days: 1899-1906 Heathen Days: 1890-1936 |
| Philology | The American Language and its Supplements |
| Politics | Notes on Democracy On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe |
| Religion | Treatise on the Gods Treatise on Right and Wrong |
Once the reader comes to this point, he is ready to turn to biography. The most readable, yet scholarly, one is Hobson’s Mencken, A Life. The most entertaining and joyous is William Manchester’s out-of-print Disturber of the Peace.
Though the public Mencken was always ready to jeer and laugh at the mountebank, the fool, the uplifter, he was privately haunted by a profound unhappiness. Mencken remains a figure of such interest because he is far more complex an individual that may be gathered from his writing.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Dubasky, Mayo (Editor). The Gist of Mencken: Quotations from America’s Critic Gleaned From Newspapers, Magazines, Books, Letters, and Manuscripts by Mayo DuBasky. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1990. Out of print.
Fitzpatrick, Vincent. H. L. Mencken. NY: Continuum Publishing Company, 1989.
Hobson, Fred C. Mencken: A Life. Reprint edition. Maryland Paperback Bookshelf Series. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. Originally published by Random House, Inc., New York, NY, c1994.
Johns, Bud. The Ombibulous Mr. Mencken: A Drinking Biography. San Francisco, CA: Synergistic Press, 1968. Out of print.
Manchester, William Raymond. Disturber of the Peace: The Life of H.L. Mencken. 2nd edition. Commonwealth Classics in Biography series. Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1986.
Schrader, Richard J. H. L. Mencken: A Documantary Volume (Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 222). Farmington Hills, MI: The Gale Group, 2000.
Scruggs, Charles. The Sage in Harlem: H.L. Mencken and the Black Writers of the 1920s. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, c1984. Out of print.
Bode, Carl (Editor). The Editor, The Bluenose and the Prostitute—H.L. Mencken’s History of the "Hartrack" Censorship Case. Boulder, CO: Roberts Rinehart, Inc. Publishers, 1988. Contains an Introduction by Carl Bode, the article “Hatrack” (1926) by Herbert Ashbury, and The “Hatrack Case” (1937) by H.L. Mencken.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Teachout, Terry (Editor). A Second Mencken Chrestomathy: Selected, Revised, and Annotated by the Author. New York: Alfred A. Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 1995.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956. Hobson, Fred; Fitzpatrick, Vincent; Jacobs, Bradford (Editors). Thirty-five Years of Newspaper Work: A Memoir. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Martin, Edward A. (Editor). In Defense of Marion: The Love of Marion Bloom and H.L. Mencken. Univ. of Georgia Press, 1996.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Yardley, Jonathan (Editor). My Life as Author and Editor. New York: Knopf, 1992.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Rodgers, Marion Elizabeth (Editor). The Impossible H.L. Mencken: A Selection of His Best Newspaper Stories. Foreword by Gore Vidal. New York: Doubleday, c1991. Out of print.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956. H.L. Mencken on Music: A Selection of His Writings on Music Together With an Account of H.L. Mencken’s Musical Life. Reprint. Reprint Services Corp, 1990. Out of print.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Fecher, Charles A. (Editor). The Diary of H.L. Mencken. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Nolte, William (Editor). H.L. Mencken&srquo;s Smart Set Criticism. Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1987.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Rodgers, Marion (Editor). Mencken and Sara : A Life in Letters / H.L. Mencken and Sara Haardt Mencken. New York: McGraw-Hill, c1987.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Goulden, Joseph C. (Editor). Mencken’s Last Campaign: H.L. Mencken on the 1948 election. Washington, D.C.: New Republic Book Co., 1976. Out of print.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Bode Carl, 1911- (Editor). The Young Mencken: The Best of His Work. New York: Dial Press, 1973.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Cairns, Huntington (Editor). The American Scene: A Reader. Reprint edition. New York: Vintage Books, 1982. Originally published in 1962 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. New York.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956. Minority Report: H.L. Mencken’s Notebooks. Reprint edition. Maryland Paperback Bookshelf Series. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. Originally published as a Borzoi Book by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, c1956.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Moos, Malcolm (Editor). On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe. Reprint edition. Maryland Paperback Bookshelf Series. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, c.1956. Originally published as A Carnival of Buncombe in 1956 by the Johns Hopkins Press.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Cheslock, Louis (Editor). H.L. Mencken On Music: A Selection of His Writings On Music Together With an Account of H.L. Mencken's Musical Life and a History of the Saturday Night Club. New York: Schirmer Books, 1975, c1955.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Cooke, Alistair (Editor). The Vintage Mencken. New York: Vintage Books, 1990, c1955.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956. A Mencken Chrestomathy. Reprint edition. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1982. Originally published in a hardcover edition by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY in 1949.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956. American Language, 4th Edition. New York, NY: Random House, c.1948. This title is still in print.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956. Treatise on the Gods. Second edition, corrected and rewritten. Reprint Edition. Maryland Paperback Bookshelf Series. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. Originally published as a Borzoi Book by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York; first edition, 1930, second edition 1946.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956. Heathen Days: 1890-1936. Volume 3 of Mencken's autobiography. Reprint edition. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. Maryland Paperback Bookshelf Series, 1996. Originally published in a hardcover edition by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY in 1943.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956. Newspaper Days: 1899-1906. Volume 2 of Mencken's autobiography. Reprint edition. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. Maryland Paperback Bookshelf Series. Originally published in a hardcover edition by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY in 1941.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956. Happy Days: 1880-1892. Volume 1 of Mencken's autobiography. Reprint edition. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. Maryland Paperback Bookshelf Series. Originally published in a hardcover edition by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY in 1936.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956; Farrell, James T. (Selector). Prejudices: A Selection. Reprint edition. Maryland Paperback Bookshelf Series. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. Originally published by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, 1959.
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956. In Defense of Women. Project Gutenberg Edition, 1998. Based on unknown edition, c.1919. [Click here for download page]
Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis), 1880-1956. Prejudices: First Series. Electronic Edition. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1998. Originaly published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, in 1919.
Brown, Barbara Ione Kaufman, 1943–. The political thought of H. L. Mencken. Thesis—Johns Hopkins University. Microfilm by University Microfilms. Baltimore, 1971.
Doresy, John (Editor). On Mencken: Essays. New York: Knopf, c1980. Out of print.
Fecher, Charles A. Mencken: A Study of His Thought. New York : Alfred A. Knopf : distributed by Random House, 1978. Out of print.
Hobson, Fred C. Serpent In Eden: H.L. Mencken and the South. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978. Reprint Edition. Originally published by University of North Carolina Press, c.1974.
Stenerson, Douglas C. (Editor). Critical Essays on H.L. Mencken. Critical Essays on American Literature series. G. K. Hall, 1987.
Williams, William H. A. H. L. Mencken Revisited. Twayne’s United States Authors Series, No 694. NY: Twayne Publishers, 1998.
Schrader, Richard J. H.L. Mencken: A Descriptive Bibliography. With the assistance of George H. Thompson and Jack R. Sanders. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998. For supplements, see: http://www2.bc.edu/~schrader/mencken.pdf
Forgue, Guy J. Letters of H. L. Mencken. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961.
Joshi, S. T.. From Baltimore To Bohemia: The Letters of H. L. Mencken and George Sterling. Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2001.
Fitzpatrick, Vincent. Gerald W. Johnson: From Southern Liberal to National Conscience (Southern Biography Series). Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2002.
Hatchett, Louis. Mencken’s Americana. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2002.
Going, William Thornbury, 1915-. Essays on Alabama literature. Studies in the Humanities. No. 4: Literature. University of Alabama Press, 1975. See chapter “Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald and Sara Haardt Mencken”.