H.L. Mencken

H.L. Mencken was one of the most well known journalists, editors, and critics of the twenties. He was renown for being shockingly honest, sarcastic, and politically extreme. He often lampooned the Victorian way of life that governed many Americans of the time. Thus, Mencken despised Prohibition and was a loudly proclaimed "wet." He even coined a new word, "ombibulous," to describe his favor for liquor and his disfavor for Prohibition's affront to liberty. Mencken was known to often indulge his ombibulous nature by openly drinking or leading others to drink in defiance of the law. In the following essay written in the 1940s, Mencken describes these experiences, which also show how easy it was for a determined man, despite the law, to find alcohol in a Prohibition-locked America.

Prohibition went into effect on January 16, 1920, and blew up at...