Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-01-30

who differed with him. An tnsa-
table collector Of data. he did
not exclude the criticisms
heaped on him by pulpit and
press. In 1928 be published
them under the title of Menck-
eniana. a Schimpfiexicon. He
made his critics pay OF in roy
alties.
Running close behind the
moralists on Mr. Mencken's tai
were the English professors. who
accused him of steering young
writers into a bottomless abyss
To them Mr.. Mencken replied.
The truly first-rate writer IS
not one who uses the language
as such dolts tschoolmasters and
their dupes) demand that it be
used: he is one who reworks It
in spite Of their prohibitions"
He practiced this theory with
aplomb. spreading on his manu-
scripts such monstrosities as ra-
tiocination. photography. leuco-
cytes. decoctions. antimonians.
aphrodisiacal, sacerdotal. seller
otto. recusant and sempiternal
But his most worked adjective
was "gaudy"
| Mr.. Mecken's interest in words
came at an early age. and per-
haps was an offshoot OF MS
systematic collection and filing
of notes.
/ 1t found expression in one
form in his "A New Dictionary
of Quotations." started in 1911
and completed in 1912.
Preferred american" to English.
But the monument he erected
which should perpetuate his
name after his critlques are for
gotten is his ambitious THE
American Language"
He started it with a thin
volume in 1919 as a one-man
effort to prove there is an Amer
lean language far removed and
superior to the English. Com
pairing American" with English
in 1889. he said:
American is the best lam
guage. There are no shackles
on 1t 1t moves freely and with
easy gestures. The English with
their love Of precision and their
fear of the unprecedented will
surely never hold it back. There
is something magnificently alive
about American: 1t suggests
Madison Square Garden on the
big fight. or q stockyard full OF
prime hogs"
1 On his 10th birthday ami
versary Mr.. Mencken announced
ne was giving his tremendous
collection Of books and papers
to the Enoch Pratt Free Library
in Baltimore. 1t was a reverse
birthday gift. he explained, in
, appreciation for the many years
OF assistance he had received
: from the library. In his memoirs
Happy Days" Mr.. Mencken re-
called his long patronage of the
public library system. II had a
card before I was 9 and began
an almost daily marrying of the
virgins at the delivery desk"
/ During the mellowing early
40s, after he had relinquished the
American Mercury in 1888 ano
gradually pulled away from ac-
tive newspaper work. Mr. Memo
ken gave his followers something
that proved he was not all fire
and birthstone. They were the
nostalgia Happy Days" anc
Newspaper Days" and Heather
Days" fat books of autobiog
| raphy which made him seem
!, more human than before.
One newspaper assignment he
. carried on fervently was the
quadrennial reporting of the ma.
tional political conventions. In
/ 1852, when there we're three tc
cover. he did not shlrk his report.
ing of the "bellowings" and the
"hollerings OF the faithful"
Mr.. Mencken was married a,
the age of so to the former
Sara Haardt Of Montgomery, Ala
The year after their marriage
she wrote a novel. THE Making
of a Lady" His wife succeeded in
. taking Mr. Mencken away from
his beloved Hollins street home
but when she died five year!
after their marriage. he returned
to his birthplace.