A Book of Prefaces

H. L. Mencken’s A Book of Prefaces (1917) is a landmark collection of four essays on American culture and literature. In chapters on Theodore Dreiser, Joseph Conrad, and James Huneker, Mencken uses incisive analysis and forceful polemic to advocate for artistic independence and cosmopolitan standards. In a fourth chapter, “Puritanism as a Literary Force,” Mencken denounces the stifling influence of Puritan values on William Dean Howells, Henry James, and Mark Twain, arguing that religious orthodoxy and rigid social convention have suppressed aesthetic freedom and honest expression. A Book of Prefaces provoked fierce backlash from defenders of American tradition even as it inspired a new generation and established Mencken as a bold, influential voice in literary debate. This Warbler Classics edition includes an introduction, annotations, a biographical timeline, and suggestions for further reading by William E. Cain.

H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) was a brilliant journalist, essayist, and cultural critic whose sharp wit and fearless opinions made him one of America’s most notable men of letters. Born and based in Baltimore, he began as a reporter and rose to fame at The Baltimore Sun newspaper. As co-editor of The Smart Set and founder of The American Mercury, Mencken championed literary modernism and published significant English, American, and African American writers. By the 1920s, he had become the dominant influence and inspiration on the literary and cultural scene.

William E. Cain is the Mary Jewett Gaiser Professor of English at Wellesley College. He is the editor of American Literature, a two-volume anthology; the author of American Literary Criticism, 1900–1945; and a co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Criticism and Theory.

“H. L. Mencken was to the first part of the twentieth century what Mark Twain was to the last part of the nineteenth—the quintessential voice of American letters.” 
—Terry Teachout, biographer, critic, essayist