Writings in the Baltimore Sun, 1909-1922

This volume of H. L. Mencken's newspaper work is enlivened by his controvesial writings during World War I. As the son of German immigrants, Mencken unabashedly defended Germany during the conflict. He was with a group of reporters in Germany in the spring of 1917, and in a succession of articles he tells of their perilous efforts to get out of the country just as the United States is about to enter the war. Mencken boarded a boat that went to Cuba, where he reported on an unsuccessful rebellion against the government. In other papers Mencken writes of the distinction between American and British English, and also gives a stirring account of the boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier. As the author of numerous unsigned editorials, Mencken expatiates on familiar subjects-the institution of marriage, the pleasures of eating, the peccadilloes of local politicians, and the like. In sum, this volume again reveals why Mencken was the most distinctive journalist of his generation.