Introduction, 1-4 Summary and Analysis

Introduction:

Alistair Cooke, a journalist and friend to H.L. Mencken, states that he decided to put together this volume of his favorite Mencken works to both remind older intellectuals who "cut their teeth" on Mencken of the man, and to introduce Mencken to an entirely new generation. He notes that Mencken was his satirical, intellectual best in the 1920s, and that Roosevelt and the hardships of the 1930s would prove Mencken's downfall, as the attitude of the country had changed, rendering Mencken's musings arrogant-sounding and irrelevant.

Cooke describes a bit of Mencken's upbringing, how Twain's Huck Finn became Mencken's touchstone into literature, and how as a boy wonder in Baltimore newspapers Mencken meteorically rose to columnist after only a few years.

Cooke states that he has included Mencken's best work, excluding his earliest work where he was still...