H.L. MENCKEN. Prejudices. First [ - Sixth] Series. N.Y.: 1919-27. 6 works in 6 vols. 1st eds. Boxed

Henry Louis MENCKEN (1880-1956). Prejudices. First [… Second; …. Third; …. Fourth; … Fifth; …Sixth] Series. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1919 -1927. 6 works in six volumes, small octavo. Original blue cloth, all but the first with dust-jacket, all six with cloth chemises, all in individual custom box-form two-part slipcases. Provenance: Alexander F. Haas collection (each slipcase blocked in gilt with owner’s name).

A spectacular complete set – probably the best available.

‘H. L. Mencken was unquestionably the most provocative and influential journalist and cultural critic in twentieth-century America. The six volumes of Prejudices, published between 1919 and 1927, were both a slashing attack on what Mencken saw as American provincialism and hypocrisy and a resounding defense of the writers and thinkers he thought of as harbingers of a new frankness and maturity. Laced with savage humor and delighting in verbal play, Mencken’s prose remains a one-of-a-kind roller-coaster ride through a staggering range of themes: literature and journalism, politics and religion, sex and marriage, food and drink … Edmund Wilson wrote: “Mencken’s mind . . . has all the courage in the world in a country where courage is rare.” That courage may sometimes have been coupled with an inflexible stubbornness that led him into positions hard to defend. But to succeeding generations of writers and readers, Mencken was the figure who had risked charges of heresy and sedition and almost single-handedly brought America into a new cultural era. To read him is to be plunged into an era whose culture wars were easily as ferocious as those of our own day, in the company of a critic of vast curiosity and vivacious frankness..’ (https://loa.org/books/331-prejudices-first-second-third-series).

Comprising:

1.Prejudices: First Series. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1919. Small octavo. Boxed. First edition. Blue cloth, edges shaved, no d/j otherwise excellent. Frey 11a

2.Prejudices: Second Series. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1920. Small octavo. Boxed. First edition. Blue cloth, edges shaved, d/j (small chips to d/j, otherwise excellent). Frey 12a

3.Prejudices: Third Series. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, October 1922. Small octavo. Boxed. First edition. Blue cloth, edges shaved, top edge orange, d/j (two puncture holes in upper cover of the d/j, otherwise excellent). Frey 13a.

4.Prejudices: Fourth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, October 1924. Small octavo. Boxed. First edition. Blue cloth, edges shaved, top edge orange, d/j (very light mark to upper cloth cover, otherwise excellent).

5.Prejudices: Fifth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. Small octavo. Boxed. First edition. Blue cloth, edges shaved, top edge orange, d/j. Excellent.

6.Prejudices: Sixth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927. Small octavo. Boxed. First edition. Blue cloth, edges shaved, top edge orange, d/j Excellent.