H. L. Mencken

Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken (September 12, 1880, Baltimore – January 29, 1956, Baltimore, Maryland), was an American journalist, essay, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a student of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writer and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century. Mencken is perhaps best remembered today for The American Language, a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States, and for his satirical reporting on the Scopes trial, which he named the "Monkey" trial. Mencken was the son of August Mencken, a cigar factory owner of German extraction. At the age of three, his family moved into a new home at 1524 Hollins Street, in the Union Square neighborhood of Baltimore. Apart from five years of married life, Mencken was to live in that house for the rest of his life. Mencken's parents insisted that his high school...