Three Early Works (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading): A Book of Prefaces, Damn! A Book of Calumny, and The American Credo

By H.L. Mencken and Richard J. Schrader

H. L. Mencken presents master styling in A Book of Prefaces (1917), Damn! (1918), and The American Credo (1920). Prefaces is a book of literary criticism containing the essays "Joseph Conrad," "Theodore Dreiser," "James Huneker," and "Puritanism as a Literary Force." He hoped that "they may at least blow a wind through the prevailing fogs, and reveal what is sound and important in some first-rate books." The ensuing intellectual battle energized a generation. Damn! A Book of Calumny contains some of Mencken's wittier turns in its forty-nine short essays. It has been mined for anthologies, but it has never before been reprinted as a whole. The American Credo: A Contribution Toward the Interpretation of the National Mind contains four hundred and eighty-eight articles, co-written by drama critic George Jean Nathan, about American popular belief.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Sep 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781411430631

H.L. Mencken

H. L. Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements. Mencken is best known for The American Language, a multivolume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States.