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Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes Trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also gained him attention. As a scholar, Mencken is known for ''The American Language'', a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States. As an admirer of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, he was an outspoken opponent of organized religion, theism, and representative democracy, the last of which he viewed as a system in which inferior men dominated their superiors. Mencken was a supporter of scientific progress and was critical of osteopathy and chiropractic. He was also an open critic of economics. Mencken opposed the American entry into World War I and World War II. Some of the opinions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The American Language
''The American Language; An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States'', first published in 1919, is H. L. Mencken's book about the English language as spoken in the United States. Origins and concept Mencken was inspired by "the argot of the colored waiters" in Washington, as well as one of his favorite authors, Mark Twain, and his experiences on the streets of Baltimore. In 1902, Mencken remarked on the "queer words which go into the making of 'United States.'" The book was preceded by several columns in '' The Evening Sun.'' Mencken eventually asked "Why doesn't some painstaking pundit attempt a grammar of the American language... English, that is, as spoken by the great masses of the plain people of this fair land?" In the tradition of Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary, Mencken wanted to defend "Americanisms" against a steady stream of English critics, who usually isolated Americanisms as borderline "perversions" of the "mother tongue". ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sara Haardt
Sara Powell Haardt (March 1, 1898 – May 31, 1935) was an American author and professor of English literature. Though she died at the age of 37 of meningitis, she produced a considerable body of work including newspaper reviews, articles, essays, a novel ''The Making of a Lady'', several screenplays and over 50 short stories. She is central to John Barton Wolgamot's notorious book-length poem, ''In Sara Mencken, Christ and Beethoven there were men and women'' (1944), recorded by the composer Robert Ashley. Early life and education Sara Powell Haardt was born March 1, 1898, to Venetia (Hall) Haardt and German American John Anton Haardt in Montgomery, Alabama, the eldest of five children. She attended the Margaret Booth School. In 1920, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Goucher College in Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (Unit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Union Square, Baltimore
Union Square is a neighborhood located in the Sowebo area of Baltimore. It dates to the 1830s and includes a historic district of houses and commerce buildings. Overview Named for the graceful park at its center, Union Square is a diverse urban setting - home to art galleries, artist studios, H.L. Mencken’s lifelong residence, and spacious three-story Italianate and Victorian rowhouses. On the historic ground of Southwest Baltimore is known to locals as " Sowebo" (SouthWest Baltimore). Union Square is less than a mile from Camden Yards and within walking distance of the "Inner Harbor" (formerly known as "The Basin" of the harbor), the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River, the B&O Railroad Museum, Ravens Stadium (later known as M. & T. Bank Stadium), and the University of Maryland at Baltimore, (the original and founding campus of the U. of M. system, from 1807). The state-of-the-art U.M.B. Biotech Park on West Baltimore Street is a recent addition, with portions still u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
August Mencken Sr
August Mencken Sr. (1854–1899) was an American cigar magnate who founded Aug. Mencken & Bro. in 1873 with a starting capital of $23 of his own money and $21 of his brother's. A member of Baltimore's German-American community, Mencken was a high-tariff Republican who ran a nonunion factory, viewed the eight-hour day as a foreign innovation destined to destroy America, and drank rye whiskey before every meal, including breakfast. In about 1889, the Baltimore local Cigar Makers' International Union called a strike. The union did not have the funds to pay full benefits to members; the best it could manage was the $2.10 cost of a ticket to Philadelphia, which had so many cigar shops it was known as the Cigarmaker's Heaven. The only proof that it required of a candidate's profession were the tools of the trade: a boxwood ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24. Nietzsche resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 45, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes. Nietzsche's writing spans philosophical polemics ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tribune Publishing. The ''Baltimore Sun's'' parent company, '' Tribune Publishing'', was acquired by Alden Global Capital, which operates its media properties through Digital First Media, in May 2021. History ''The Sun'' was founded on May 17, 1837, by printer/editor/publisher/owner Arunah Shepherdson Abell (often listed as "A. S. Abell") and two associates, William Moseley Swain, and Azariah H. Simmons, recently from Philadelphia, where they had started and published the '' Public Ledger'' the year before. Abell was born in Rhode Island, became a journalist with the ''Providence Patriot'' and later worked with newspapers in New York City and Boston.Van Doren, Charles and Robert McKendry, ed., ''Webster's American Biographies''. (Springfiel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was designated an independent city by the Constitution of Maryland in 1851, and today is the most populous independent city in the United States. As of 2021, the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was estimated to be 2,838,327, making it the 20th largest metropolitan area in the country. Baltimore is located about north northeast of Washington, D.C., making it a principal city in the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA), the third-largest CSA in the nation, with a 2021 estimated population of 9,946,526. Prior to European colonization, the Baltimore region was used as hunting grounds by the Susquehannock Native Americans, who were primarily settled further northwest than where the city was later built. Colonist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. Baltimore is the largest city in the state, and the capital is Annapolis. Among its occasional nicknames are '' Old Line State'', the ''Free State'', and the '' Chesapeake Bay State''. It is named after Henrietta Maria, the French-born queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, who was known then in England as Mary. Before its coastline was explored by Europeans in the 16th century, Maryland was inhabited by several groups of Native Americans – mostly by Algonquian peoples and, to a lesser degree, Iroquoian and Siouan. As one of the original Thirteen Colonies of England, Maryland was founded by George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, a Catholic convert"George Calvert and Cecilius Calvert, Barons Baltimore" William Hand Browne, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cultural Critic
A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions of the critics and the medium they use vary widely. The conceptual and political grounding of criticism also changes over time. Terminology Contemporary usage has tended to include all types of criticism directed at culture. The term "cultural criticism" itself has been claimed by Jacques Barzun: ''No such thing was recognized or in favour when we .e. Barzun and Trillingbegan—more by intuition than design—in the autumn of 1934''. It has been argued that in the inter-war period, the language of literary criticism was adequate for the needs of cultural critics; but that later it mainly served academe. Alan Trachtenberg's ''Critics of Culture'' (1976) concentrated on American intellectuals of the 1920s who were "nonacademic" (incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satirist
This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires. Under Contemporary, 1930-1960 P.J. O'Rourke Joe Queenan Early satirical authors *Aesop (c. 620–560 BCE, Ancient Greece) – ''Aesop's Fables'' *Diogenes (c. 412–323 BCE, Ancient Greece) *Aristophanes (c. 448–380 BCE, Ancient Greece) – ''The Frogs'', '' The Birds'', and '' The Clouds'' *Gaius Lucilius (c. 180–103 BCE, Roman Republic) *Horace (65–8 BCE, Roman Republic) – ''Satires'' *Ovid (43 BCE – 17 CE, Roman Republic/Roman Empire) – '' The Art of Love'' *Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BCE – 65 CE, Hispania/Rome) – ''Apocolocyntosis'' *Persius (34–62 CE, Roman Empire) *Petronius (c. 27–66 CE, Roman Empire) – ''Satyricon'' *Juvenal (1st to early 2nd cc. CE, Roman Empire) – ''Satires'' *Lucian (c. 120–180 CE, Roman Empire) *Apuleius (c. 123– ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enoch Pratt Free Library
The Enoch Pratt Free Library is the free public library system of Baltimore, Maryland. Its Central Library and office headquarters are located on 400 Cathedral Street (southbound) and occupy the northeastern three quarters of a city block bounded by West Franklin Street (U.S. Route 40 westbound) to the north, Cathedral Street to the east, West Mulberry Street (U.S. Route 40 eastbound) to the south, and Park Avenue (northbound) to the west. Located on historic Cathedral Hill, north of downtown, the library is also in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere-Mount Royal neighborhood and cultural and historic district. The Cathedral Street Main Library is the flagship of the entire Enoch Pratt Free Library system, now with twenty-two community / neighborhood and regional branches, it was designated the "Maryland State Library Resource Center" by the General Assembly of Maryland in 1971. The center operates as the state library for Maryland. A state agency oversees the center. History Its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Entry Into World War II
Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor took place on December 7, 1941. The U.S. military suffered 18 ships damaged or sunk, and 2,400 people were killed. Its most significant consequence was the entrance of the United States into World War II. The US had previously been officially neutral but subsequently entered the Pacific War, the Battle of the Atlantic and the European theatre of war. Following the attack, the US interned 120,000 Japanese Americans, 11,000 German Americans, and 3,000 Italian Americans. American public opinion prior to the attack From the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939, to December 8, 1941, the United States was officially neutral, as it was bound by the Neutrality Acts not to get involved in the conflicts raging in Europe and Asia. Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, public opinion in the United States had not been unanimous. When polled in January 1940, 60% of Americans were in favor of helping the United Kingdom in the war. A majority of Ame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
