Evening star., 1950-04-16


he probably is regarded today by
To those vino were young in the
may still seem the writer who
made literary criticism a more
vital force in America, who fought
against censorship and against the
lingering shadows of Victorian
hypocrisy, who battled for forth
right picture of life as it is.
Those older persons also may
remember him as the most friendly
editor to unknown writer's in
magazine history-the man who
encouraged and developed a whole
school of new authors, some Of
them famous today.
The young people of the turbu-
lent '20s recall in their less
agitated middle-age that it was
Mr.. Mencken who forgot his liter
airy interests, tossed off his coat
and plunged into the fight against
prohibition, the Ku Klux Klan and
the moralists who were deter
mined to make people what they
called good if they had to kill
them in the process. These gray
ing admirers know that the Sage
Of Baltimore won some of these
rough-and-tumble battles so de-
cisively that whole issues disap-
peared.
A Livelier Bernard Shaw.
Perhaps those who are too
young to remember Mr.. Mencken
in his prime have only a confused
impression Of a livelier Bernard
Shaw. who liked to shock his
countrymen by poking impious
epigrams at their most revered
institutions and beliefs. Others
may never have forgiven him be-
cause he was Indifferent in both
World Wars and likes the four Bs
Of the old Germany-Bach,
Beethoven, Brahms and beer-too
much ever to turn against the
country Of his ancestors. And
there are the more scholarly Who
think of Mr.. Mencken's solid con-
tribution to philology. 1.-THE
American Language"
1t was hard to make character
Of so many divergent facets come
to life, to ferret out the human
being who turks somewhere be-
meath the journalistic and literary
arena. Mr.. Kemler has done prob
ably as well as any one could. His
book Is no hymn of praise. It is
a critical study. and if it errs in
some judgments. these conclusions
are not on the side of Mr..
Mencken. AS the biographer sees
him, "Mr. Mencken is skeptic of
the first rank-an American
Rabelais. Swift or Shaw-who has
somehow abused his gifts" Kem-
Ter feels that Mr.. Mencken has
produced no works likely to en-
dure except "The American
Language" and his three auto
biographical books.
The American Mercury.
It seems to me that Mr.. Kemler
undertakes Mr.. Mencken's capac-
ity and influence as a literary
critic. The Sage had his limita-
tions, his blind spots. But what !
critic hasn't? It is true that the
Smart Set, in its final phase
under the editorship of Mr..
Mencken and George Jean
Nathan. the drama critic, became
a hodge-podge in which Mencken-
Nathan reflections dominated.
But in earlier years, during their
joint control and for a decade
before. it was the most brilliant
fiction magazine in American
annals. Mr.. Kemler seems right
In saying that the American
Mercury would have been a better
literary magazine If the artistic
Mr.. Nathan had remained. And
yet the formula Mr.. Mencken
evolved-nine-tenths public ques-
tions and very little fiction-is
adhered to by the more literate
magazines to this day-for better
or for worse.
Mr.. Kemler's book is decidedly
amusing. The writing is brightly
aglow. He had the cooperation of
the ailing Mr.. Mencken in it's
preparation if not entirely in its
summations. The author is al
product of Baltimore and a Johns
Hopkins alumnus.