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Name:
Henry Louis Mencken
H.L. Mencken
Nickname: the "Sage of Baltimore"
Dates:
Born: September 12, 1880 in Baltimore, Maryland
Died: January 29, 1956
Biography:
Henry Louis Mencken was an essayist, newspaper editor, and prolific
author who specialized in writing biting satire which criticized the political, religious and
social dogmas which most people tended to accept without question.
Mencken was a staunch defender of individualism, thus his sights were often aimed at those forces which threatened to eliminate diversity in the name of conformity. He became well known for his reporting at the Scopes Monkey Trial where he harshly attacked William Jennings Bryan.
Mencken's criticism of religion was based upon his own philosophy of scientific skepticism. For Mencken, it was not so much an attempt to prove that science is true and religion is false, but rather to show that the value of doubt is better than the value of faith. Mencken also became an advocate of Nietzschean ethics, arguing that democracy and socialism only encourage mob rule and mob ethics instead of the important values of honor, courage and rebellion.
Also Known As: none
Alternate Spellings: none
Common Misspellings: none
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