H. L. Mencken

Damn! A Book of Calumny consists of these chapters: Pater Patriæ; The Reward of the Artist; The Heroic Considered; The Burden of Humor; The Saving Grace; Moral Indignation; Stable-Names; The Jews; The Comstockian Premiss; The Labial Infamy; A True Ascetic; On Lying; History; The Curse of Civilization; Eugenics; The …

Four of H.L. Mencken's "Prefaces" -- which are, in fact, major essays on literature -- are collected herein, including works on Joseph Conrad, Theodore Dreiser, James Huneker, and Puritanism as a Literary Force. Includes the preface from the fourth edition.