Description:

Mencken Henry


H. L. Mencken Thanks Massachusetts Contributor to His Magazine

 

H. L. MENCKEN, Archive of two Autograph Letters Signed and three Typed Letters Signed, all to Raymond A. MacDonald, 1923-1927. Expected folds; very good.

 

Highlights and Excerpts:

* H. L. Mencken to R. A. MacDonald, Autograph Letter Signed, [February 27, 1923], New York. 1 p. + envelope, 5.5" x 8.5". On “The Smart Set” stationery.
“The best clipping bureau that I know of is the Author’s Clipping Bureau, Massey Bldg., Washington, D.C. Thanks very much for your note.”

* H. L. Mencken to R. A. MacDonald, Autograph Letter Signed, [April 13, 1923], New York. 1 p. + envelope, 5.5" x 8.5". On “The Smart Set” stationery.
“I shall send for the ‘life studies’ and take a look. Onward, Christian soldiers!”

* H. L. Mencken to R. A. MacDonald, Typed Letter Signed, September 21, 1926, Baltimore. 1 p. + envelope, 5.5" x 8.5". On “The American Mercury” stationery.
“My best thanks for the contribution to Americana. It is excellent stuff and I am putting it into type at once.”

* H. L. Mencken to R. A. MacDonald, Typed Letter Signed, November 27, 1926. 1 p., 5.5" x 8.5". On “The American Mercury” stationery.
“Thanks very much for the clipping. I am delighted to have it and am putting it into Americana at once.”

* H. L. Mencken to R. A. MacDonald, Typed Letter Signed, April 23, 1927. 1 p., 5.5" x 8.5". On “The American Mercury” stationery.
“Thanks very much for the contribution to Americana. Curiously enough I find on inquiry that we used it about eighteen months ago. I hope you turn up something else.”

 

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) was born in Baltimore of German ancestry. After graduating from a technical high school as valedictorian at age 15, he worked in his father’s cigar factory for three years. He began his career as a journalist in 1899 at the Baltimore Morning Herald. In 1906, he transferred to The Baltimore Sun, where he worked until 1948, when a stroke stopped his writing. In 1908, he became a literary critic for The Smart Set magazine, and in 1924, he and drama critic George Jean Nathan co-founded and edited The American Mercury, a magazine published by Alfred A. Knopf. Mencken resigned as editor in 1933. In 1930, he married Sara Haardt (1898-1935), an English professor at Goucher College, whose death from tuberculosis five years later left him grief-stricken. He opposed both the New Deal and American involvement in World War II, which hurt his popularity. He ceased writing for The Baltimore Sun for several years to focus on his memoirs and other projects, though he continued to advise the Sun on editorial matters.

 

Raymond A. MacDonald (1890-1959) was born in Massachusetts to a Canadian father and Scottish mother. During World War I, he worked as a clerk in the Ordnance division of the War Department in Washington, D.C. In 1920, he lived with his parents and was a bookkeeper for a car company in West Springfield. In 1927, he married Ambia Harris (1898-1980), and they had at least two children. They moved to Manhattan, where in 1930, he was a salesman for a book publishing firm. By 1942, he worked for Little Brown and Company and lived in Scarsdale, New York.

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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