[537] in libertarians
Laissez Faire Book News: SECOND MENCKEN CHRESTOMATHY
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Whitten)
Tue Dec 27 16:42:47 1994
Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 14:33:04 -0500 (EST)
From: Chris Whitten <lfb@panix.com>
Apparently-To: <libertarians@mit.edu>
H.L. Mencken jackpot discovered--
A treasury of lost writings on liberty
A SECOND MENCKEN CHRESTOMATHY
Selected, Revised, and Annotated by H.L. Mencken
edited with an introduction by Terry Teachout
(reviewed by Jim Powell)
In September 1948, America's most stylish individualist
author produced *A Mencken Chrestomathy*, an edited collection of
his writings from the past four decades. It soon appeared on the
*New York Times* bestseller list alongside *1984* and *The
Fountainhead*. The *Chrestomathy* has endured as a beloved
classic.
Before a stroke paralyzed Mencken in November 1948, he had
edited another collection of his writings. But for various
reasons, this was forgotten and gathered dust in the closet of
the Mencken Room at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore. *New
York Daily News* arts columnist Teachout discovered the
manuscript while working on a forthcoming biography of Mencken.
What a find! This *Second Chrestomathy* contains 238
passages, 147 of which seem never to have been published in a
book before. Many are from Mencken's columns at the *Baltimore
Sun*, his articles for *Smart Set* and the *American Mercury*.
Sixty-two passages were republished in books, but they are out of
print. While 29 passages are available in other collections, 21
appear now in previously-unpublished versions. Mencken, you see,
edited an article first when it appeared as a newspaper column, a
second time if it was collected in a book such as his
*Prejudices* series, and a third time for a chrestomathy.
There's significantly more political commentary here than in
the first *Chrestomathy*. Included, too, are articles which
reflect Mencken's wide-ranging interests Mark Twain, Aldous
Huxley, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henrik Ibsen, Franz Schubert, San
Francisco, the Civil War, hot dogs and much more.
Again and again, Mencken makes clear his commitment to
liberty. For example:
"Thomas Jefferson, the greatest of all American political
philosophers... believed that in any dispute between a citizen
and an official the citizen ought to have the benefit of every
doubt."
* * *
"No government is ever fair in its dealings with men
suspected of enmity to it."
* * *
"The only way to make a government tolerant, and hence
genuinely free, is to keep it weak."
* * *
"Public schools... are staffed by quacks and hag-ridden by
fanatics."
* * *
"The son of an immigrant almost invariably makes his way to
a level above his father's: the exceptions are rare and almost
miraculous."
* * *
"The most steadily attractive of all human qualities is
competence."
* * *
"It takes twice as long to convert a body of women to some
new fallacy or charlatan as it takes to convert a body of men,
and even then they halt, hesitate and are full of mordant
criticisms."
* * *
"One hears murmurs against Mussolini [1931] on the ground
that he is a desperado: the real objection to him is that he is a
politician."
* * *
"... if there is something you want and have got, [Franklin
Roosevelt] will take it away."
* * *
"The liberty to have and hold property is not one that they
[so-called 'Liberals'] recognize. They believe only in the
liberty to envy, hate and loot the man who has it."
* * *
"... government, which, as Prof. Dr. Franz Oppenheimer has
amply demonstrated, is always and inevitably no more than a vast
machine for furthering such exploitation."
* * *
"I believe in liberty... the first thing and the last thing.
So long as it prevails the show is thrilling and stupendous; the
moment it fails the show is a dull and dirty farce."
Book No. HL6192 (hardcover) 491p. publisher's price $30.00
LAISSEZ FAIRE PRICE ONLY $22.95
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Happy Holidays,
Chris
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Chris Whitten LFB@panix.com
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