''A Book of Prefaces'' is H. L. Mencken's 1917 collection of essays criticizing American culture, authors, and movements. Mencken described the work as " ymost important book in its effects upon my professional career." In fact, the book was considered vitriolic enough that Mencken's close friend Alfred Knopf was concerned about publishing it because of the massive increase in patriotism during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in America. The book was eighty pages long and divided into four essays. The first three were concerned with specific writers: Theodore Dreiser,

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...

and James Gibbons Huneker, respectively. But perhaps the most important, and certainly the most outspoken essay was entitled "Puritanism as a Literary Force," during which he alleged that

William Dean Howells William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ...

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, and

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

were victims of the Puritan spirit. :"The Puritan's utter lack of aesthetic sense, his distrust of all romantic emotion, his unmatchable intolerance of opposition, his unbreakable belief in his own bleak and narrow views, his savage cruelty of attack, his lust for relentless and barbarous persecution – these things have put an almost unbearable burden up on the exchange of ideas in the United States." Mencken had criticized Puritanism for many years, famously characterizing it as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy," but through World War I his criticism became increasingly outspoken, in part due to the rising tide of

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. Mencken's book triggered the imagination of a famous American author. As a teen first entering the world of reading and books in the early 1920s, Richard Wright found literary inspiration in ''A Book of Prefaces''.

Response

Critical response

Response to Mencken's book was generally poor, but certain defenders of American culture were particularly outspoken in their criticism of the book—most notably Stuart Sherman, a professor at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

(Sherman was personally attacked in Prefaces). According to Sherman: ''" enckenleaps from the saddle with sabre flashing, stables his horse in the church, shoots the priest, hangs three professors, exiles the Academy, burns the library and the university, and amid smoking ashes, erects a new school of criticism on modern German principles."'' Other major critics included Paul Elmer More and

Irving Babbitt Irving Babbitt (August 2, 1865 – July 15, 1933) was an American academic and literary critic, noted for his founding role in a movement that became known as the New Humanism, a significant influence on literary discussion and conservative tho ...

, although neither of these was as vitriolic as Sherman.

Mencken's response

According to Mencken, Sherman's review was "a masterly exposure of what is going on in the Puritan mind, and particularly of its maniacal fear of the German." ''"The curse of criticism in America is the infernal babbling of third-rate college professor... he Book of Prefacesshook the professors as they had never been shaken before."''

Sources

* Bode, Carl ''Mencken.'' Southern Illinois University Press, London, 1969. * Hobson, Fred ''Mencken.'' Random House, New York, 1994. * Manchester, William ''Disturber of the Peace.''

University of Massachusetts Press The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...

, Amherst, 1986.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Book Of Prefaces, A 1917 non-fiction books Alfred A. Knopf books Books by H. L. Mencken Essay collections Books of literary criticism Puritanism in the United States