Author: Oleg Panczenko

  • Last Week with H. L. Mencken (Feb. 3, 2023 edition)

    Last Week with H. L. Mencken (Feb. 3, 2023 edition)

    January 29 – “Inherit the Wind” is returning to the stage in Albuquerque: “This enthralling drama is a fictionalized account of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial, which resulted in John T. Scopes’ being convicted for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to a high school science class, contrary to a Tennessee law. The character of…

  • Last Week with H. L. Mencken (Jan. 27, 2023 edition)

    Last Week with H. L. Mencken (Jan. 27, 2023 edition)

    January 22 — Anthony J. DeBlasi on the intelligence of the American public: “H. L. Mencken had something to say about terminal dumbing, back in 1920, that makes me wonder if he was joking: ‘As democracy is perfected,’ he said, ‘the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people.…

  • Last Week with H. L. Mencken (Jan. 23, 2023 edition)

    Last Week with H. L. Mencken (Jan. 23, 2023 edition)

    See how writers were quoting Mencken last week and which quotations they used. January 16 — From Herb Caen at the Anderson Valley Advertiser: “What I consider the most cynical utterance in the entire literature of Americana — H.L. Mencken’s ‘No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public’ — presents a…

  • Last Week with H. L. Mencken

    Last Week with H. L. Mencken

    See how writers were quoting Mencken last week and which quotations they used. January 8 – from a book review about war in Afghanistan: “I think you could put 100 war memoirs on a shelf and they would not contain as many references to Western intellectuals as Rubin’s 290-page book, which mentions Herbert Marcuse, Susan…

  • Mencken Day Panel Video (6 of 6) (September 9, 2022)

    Mencken Day Panel Video (6 of 6) (September 9, 2022)

    This panel co-sponsored by The Mencken Society (TMS) and the Mencken House (MH) took place the day before Mencken Day 2022 (Sept. 10). The discussion explores the dimensions of Mencken’s views, their conventional labeling as conservative, and how they might relate to contemporary political stances. The panel included Darryl Hart, president of TMS and author…

  • More Information on “Mencken as Conservative or Liberal”

    More Information on “Mencken as Conservative or Liberal”

    (zoom information below) H. L. Mencken: A Conservative for Our Times? H. L. Mencken is famous for his pungent and still quoted views on politics and politicians. This panel co-sponsored by The Mencken Society (TMS) and the Mencken House (MH) explores the dimensions of Mencken’s views, theirconventional labeling as conservative, and how they might relate…

  • Mencken as Conservative or Liberal?

    Mencken as Conservative or Liberal?

    H. L. Mencken: A Conservative for Our Times? H. L. Mencken is famous for his pungent and still quoted views on politics and politicians. This panel co-sponsored by The Mencken Society (TMS) and the Mencken House (MH) explores the dimensions of Mencken’s views, theirconventional labeling as conservative, and how they might relate to contemporary political…

  • Mencken Day 2022

    Mencken Day 2022

    Saturday, September 10, 2022 Wheeler Auditorium, Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral St 10:30 AM: Mencken Society Business meeting. Speakerswill be Chuck Chalberg, aka H. L. Mencken and G. K.Chesterton, and John Barr talking about his book on Mencken and death. 2:00 PM: The Mencken Day annual lecture will be delivered by Dr Stacy Spaulding…

  • 17th Annual Graveside Memorial

    The seventeenth Annual Gravesite Memorial will be conducted January 30, 2021 at 2:00PM at Loudon Park, weather permitting.

  • Mencken Day 2021

    Mencken Day 2021 will be held on September 11, 2021 but all events will be virtual. More information is at the Enoch Pratt Library’s at website. The day’s program: 10:30 a.m., Mencken Society Annual Meeting (Zoom only). 2 p.m., The 2021 Mencken Memorial Lecture (Zoom and Facebook Live). “The 2021 Mencken Memorial Lecture will be…