The Vintage Mencken

By Alistair Cooke

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hadley Press
• Release date: Apr 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781446547274

Alistair Cooke

Alistair Cooke, KBE (1908–2004), was a legendary British American journalist, television host, and radio broadcaster. He was born in Lancashire, England, and after graduating from the University of Cambridge, was hired as a journalist for the BBC. He rose to prominence for his London Letter reports, broadcast on NBC Radio in America during the 1930s. Cooke immigrated to the United States in 1937. In 1946, he began a tradition that would last nearly six decades—his Letter from America radio appearances on the BBC. Cooke was also beloved as the host of PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre for twenty-one years. He wrote many books, both collections of his Letters from America and other projects. After his death, the Fulbright Alistair Cooke Award in Journalism was established to support students from the United Kingdom seeking to study in the United States, and vice versa.

Reviews for The Vintage Mencken

[schmicker · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Politically incorrect and viciously stupid about so many things, but he demonstrated an exceptional mastery of the English language.

[carl_hayes-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Strong, acerbic writing, though this sampler is a bit fragmentary and unfocused. It includes a fun little bit on Mencken and Knopf struggling to get a drink in a "dry" city during prohibition.

[renderedtruth · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I have been thinking about H. L. Mencken quite a bit recently and I think he has had a profoundly worthless influence on the American culture. It was his sort of know it all elitist "intellectuals" who installed our present common secular notions about the significance of science and human understanding that are at the root of every nincompoop who thinks he is too smart to give any credence to any profession of faith that does not involve witches and trolls.He wrote an introduction to his translation of The Anti-Christ by Friedrich Nietsche where he had the gall to deny a statement by the philosopher's living representative (his sister) who asserted that Niestche was not a "hater of Christianity." Mencken said she was motivated by an attempt to increase acceptance for him but that her statements were meaningless. He was outed as a bigot, possibly in this book based on the date of it's publication. He made statements about Jews that were so egregious a storm of conversation surrounded whether it were possible to honor a man's work while holding him in partial contempt. I aint seen the work yet.He was the ace reporter on the Scopes trial and wrote some gut busters on all the dopes who tried to "jistifie ther igna ance wuth storys fum a Book of Faiee tales." By the standards of his day I guess he was a liberal. His lack of understanding towards people's faiths is an unrecognized source for his racial bigotry for which he was panned. It isn't bigotry to denigrate beliefs though. When yer as smart as a Mencken. He must have been having some marvelous revelations when this picture on the book cover was taken. He looks like a fanatical retard.I do not respect his scholarship on Niestche at all. He is someone who used the image of the philosopher to promote his own personal values and gave another polluted view of a more sensitive and humane individual than gets extracted from the translations. Mencken was an anti-Semite and anti-Christian and he purported to love Nietsche who has been recorded at various times denying those positions. Beyond that I think Mencken was just too stupid to understand much philosophy of any kind. I have his book on American English and have not been too impressed by his mundane wit either. He is a condescending pompous ass in a bad way.One of punditries finest.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A broad collection of essays on topics including literary, historical, cultural, and miscellaneous issues. Mencken's wit and literary style make most topics interesting and more often than not intellectually invigorating.