Call Number:

C0331

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 21 boxes
• 38 items (reels)
• 12.5 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); The H. L. Mencken Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1908-1956 (inclusive) and 1924-1942 (bulk)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Mencken, H.L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956

Form:

Correspondence., Galley proofs., and Proofs (Printing) -- 20th century.

Abstract:

Consists primarily of microfilm and transcripts of letters by American essayist and journalist H. L. Mencken, compiled by Princeton University historian and librarian Julian Boyd for his proposed book of Mencken's letters.

H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880-1956) was an American journalist, magazine editor, critic, satirist and essayist. He was born in Baltimore and lived there all his life, and was known as the "Sage of Baltimore." He started his writing career as a journalist at the Baltimore Morning Herald , from 1899 to 1905, and then moved to The Baltimore Sun , where he contributed full-time until he suffered a stroke in 1948. In 1908, he became a literary critic for the magazine The Smart Set , and in 1924, he and George Jean Nathan founded The American Mercury . Dent Smith was founder and editor of the Hoboken-based literary magazine ENCORE between 1942 and 1944.

The collection consists primarily of materials gathered by Princeton University librarian Julian Boyd for a proposed book of H. L. Mencken's letters. Transcripts, made for Boyd by Mencken's secretary from her original shorthand notebooks, and microfilm copies of letters from Mencken to others, including Theodore Dreiser and Upton Sinclair, comprise the bulk of the collection. The collection also includes Boyd's correspondence with other people possessing letters from Mencken, as well as Boyd's initial selection of letters for his book. Much relates also to Ernest Boyd's published work Mencken (1925). In addition, the collection contains a number of original letters from Mencken to others, including an undated letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald; the corrected galley proofs of A New Dictionary of Quotations (1942); typescripts of a poem, "Elegy in C Minor," and a speech given at the annual dinner of the American Philosophical Society; guides to book reviews in The American Mercury (Vols. 1-30, 1924-1933) and The Smart Set (Vols. 28-72, 1908-1923); and photographs.