A Book of Prefaces

A Book of Prefaces is H. L. Mencken's 1917 collection of essays criticizing American culture, authors, and movements. Mencken described the work as '[My] most important book in its effects upon my professional career.' In fact, the book was considered vitriolic enough that Mencken's close friend Alfred Knopf was concerned about publishing it because of the massive increase in patriotism during World War I in America.The book was eighty pages long and divided into four essays. The first three were concerned with specific writers: Theodore Dreiser, Joseph Conrad and James Gibbons Huneker, respectively.But perhaps the most important, and certainly the most outspoken essay was entitled 'Puritanism as a Literary Force,' during which he alleged that William Dean Howells, Henry James, and Mark Twain were victims of the Puritan spirit.'The Puritan's utter lack of aesthetic sense, his distrust of all romantic emotion, his unmatchable intolerance of opposition, his unbreakable belief in his own bleak and narrow views, his savage cruelty of attack, his lust for relentless and barbarous persecution – these things have put an almost unbearable burden up on the exchange of ideas in the United States.'Mencken had criticized Puritanism for many years, famously characterizing it as 'the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy,' but through World War I his criticism became increasingly outspoken, in part due to the rising tide of Prohibition.Mencken's book triggered the imagination of a famous American author. As a teen first entering the world of reading and books in the early 1920s, Richard Wright found literary inspiration in A Book of Prefaces.PublisherThis is a reproduction of the original artefact. In this series we are bringing a treasure throve of old books back into print using our own state-of-the-art techniques. Generally, these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way the author intended. Since we are working with old material, there may occasionally be certain imperfections within these reproductions. We're happy to make these classics available again for future generations to enjoy!

Publisher - HardPress Limited

Language - English

Perfect Bound

Contributors

By author

Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956

Published Date - 2013-01-28

ISBN - 9781313026758

Dimensions - 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm

Page Count - 300