Name	H.L. Mencken
Celebrity Index	H.
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Trivia and Quotes

Trivia

Edited two magazines in New York with drama critic George Jean Nathan while commuting to and from Baltimore where he kept up his column at the Baltimore Sun. The first magazine was The Smart Set, the second The American Mercury, in which Mencken brought to attention dozens of writers destined for fame.

Ernest Hemingway and Walter Lippmann agreed he was the most influential voice of his generation.

He was both superstitious - regarding such familiar symbols as the number 13 - and a hypochondriac: he befriended many Baltimore physicians and was a frequent visitor to, though not as a frequent patient with serious maladies, the corridors of the city`s Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Was the lead reporter at the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial.

The character of E.K. Hornbeck in "Inherit the Wind" was modeled after him. The role has been played by, among others, Gene Kelly, Darren McGavin, and Beau Bridges.

The address of his family home in Baltimore was 1524 Hollins Street.

Mencken was an outspoken defender of freedom of conscience and civil rights, and an opponent of persecution, injustice, puritanism, and self-righteousness.

He was a mentor to Alistair Cooke and William Manchester.

See also Trivia Index (H) :: Quotes Index (H) :: Connections Index (H)

• H.L. Mencken and Aileen Pringle

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