Disturber of the Peace [antikvár]

M I i Introduction The significance of H. L. Mencken in the second half of the twentieth century may well be greater, but it will be different from what it was in the first half. No doubt the kettle-drummer of the revolt of the twenties will continue to engage the interest of literary historians, and the creator of the Mencken-ian rhythm will continue to fascinate and baffle rhetors and prosodists; but it is already evident that the philologist is overshadowing all other manifestations of this versatile man, and it is conceivable that twenty-five years hence the fact that the author of The American Language was once a newspaper columnist wiU be as little known as the fact that the author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was once a lieutenant colonel. Mr. Manchester's book comes, therefore, at a fortunate moment, when the metamorphosis of the Disturber of the Peace i into the Savant is clearly in process but has not yet been accomplished. The book's timing has made it possible for the , ^,! ,. ' ¦ biographer to collect and preserve for the future an aspect of i i ; j , Mencken of which the future will have need. '< i' . This is not to be construed as a prediction that the particular . i; '; i kinds of false-faces, straw men, and pasteboard dragons that ' i i , Mencken assailed will rise to trouble us again; but others will , take their places as soon as the times once more grow lush ' . ' and easy, for such things are bred of lush and easy times. It will be necessary for someone to attack them, and it will be a thankless task; so a record of how this man operated may serve as a beacon and encouragement to the free lance of the next generation. In that respect, indeed, it may be a more important contribution to civilization than the work of the ;; ¦ scholar. ^ , ' ' ' For Mencken's early career is a refutation of the heresy that i ' , , i , "there is no arguing against a success." Mencken argued :¦ ' ' , V ' against nothing else. Many of them, indeed, proved to be false ; ' !j ' : [;, ^ successes that eventually turned into lamentable failures; but , ;, ' : at the moment of his assault they rode high. He attained : ^ power in a world whose statecraft had flowered in Calvin • , , , ' ii) il ^ I. . '!!f ,I': t: