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| I read a fair amount of Mencken when I was younger, but "The Smart Set" was only a legend, one which many intellectuals held in reverence. It's interesting finally to have the chance to read the magazine.
I was immediately struck by the overwhelming snarkiness of the criticism. The smug self-importance of Mencken, Nathan, and the others is astonishing. They're 1920s versions of Internet trolls, expressing contempt for those to whom they feel superior (which is almost everyone), and smirking coldly down their noses at the "idiots" who haven't heard of their favorite obscurities (it's worth noting that Remy de Gourmont, Ludwig Thoma, and Max Reger didn't make it into the pantheon of immortals.)
The editors peddle mysogyny, racism, and anti-iiberalism with a pompous superiority that presages Mencken's later romance with Chancellor Hitler's campaign to clean up the mess of the masses.
Very disappointing. It's the sort of thing that gave intellectualism a bad name. |
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| I don't really see the "anti-liberal" slant (and why would being anti-liberal be bad necessarily btw?) This mag to me seems pretty lib since they shared an attitude with Capt Billy's that seemed to rail against the religious, tee-totaling crowd that brought in prohibition. (look at some of the covers, esp from the 1922 run) as for the misogyny & racism, yeah that sure is there, but then confirmed lefty Jack London was also misogynistic & racist. Definitely not excusing it but it seems from my reading of older material that almost everyone of every political leaning back then was misogynistic & racist. It was an omnipresence in the cultural landscape that we have yet to fully overcome. |
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| 'They're 1920s versions of Internet trolls, expressing contempt for those to whom they feel superior' ; My thoughts exactly, although since they had to sign their names to their comments there were limits that kept them in check, unlike what happens on the internet today. I have to agree with Kracalactaka tho, re the social and political slant The mag is of its time, and, yes, what we see as racism and bigotry would not have resonated as such at the time.
I'm happy to see it on the site tho, Much of it is quite entertaining and the covers are wonderful. Every era had a literary and artistic elite like this who find some kind of outlet for their angst for believing themselves to be different from the general zeitgeist. |
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| You're right, Krac, "anti-liberalism" was a poor choice of words. It was my vain attempt to give a name to an undercurrent that runs through the Mencken/Nathan/Hatteras essays. On many issues they take stands generally ascribed to liberals: critiquing fundamentalist religion, for example, or disdaining bourgeois capitalism. But they also take shots at "liberal" concepts like democracy, universal education, and socialism.
Re-reading their essays I realize that the writers aren't criticizing particular ideals or values. They're ridiculing the very notion of having ideals or values.
I've read references to the cynicism of 1920s intellectuals. I guess this is what it looks like. Mencken & Co. define themselves primarily in terms of what they're against, and what they're against is anything that lots of other people--left, right or center--agree upon. |
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| Additional Information |
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| Content: | The Smart Set [v64 #1, January 1921] ed. George Jean Nathan & H. L. Mencken (The Smart Set Co. Inc., 35c, 144 +, standard) Details supplied by Richard Fidczuk. |
| Page 1 | Laughter - Katherine George |
| Page 2 | A Panorama of Idiots - Owen Hatteras |
| Page 3 | The Posturer - Stanley Olmsted |
| Page 24 | Treatise on Simplicity - T. F. Mitchell |
| Page 24 | Lines - Le Baron Cooke |
| Page 25 | Amy's Story - Thyra Samter Winslow |
| Page 33 | Répétition Générale - George Jean Nathan & H. L. Mencken |
| Page 41 | Wow - W. B. Seabrook |
| Page 44 | The Wall - Eugene Dolson |
| Page 45 | The Green Cord - K. T. Edmondson |
| Page 47 | The Singer - A. Newberry Choyce |
| Page 48 | Nocturne - Sam Hellman |
| Page 48 | The Stranger - Zoe Ongley |
| Page 49 | Star Magic - Joseph Upper |
| Page 53 | A Pound of Chocolates - Walter Yust |
| Page 57 | Spring - Oscar C. Williams |
| Page 57 | The Kiss of Love - Stewart Holmes |
| Page 58 | Had I Forgotten - Russell McCarthy |
| Page 58 | Ten Additions to the American Credo - Malcolm H. Oettinger |
| Page 59 | A Pastel of Vienna, Matinee at the Hofoper - Helen Woljeska |
| Page 60 | Study in Sentiment - Russell A. Hartmann |
| Page 61 | Three Swallows, Clear! - Donal Hamilton Haines |
| Page 70 | The Fire Is Out in Acheron - Maxwell Anderson |
| Page 71 | Conversations: III. On Women - Owen Hatteras |
| Page 76 | When You Came to Me - Oscar C. Williams |
| Page 77 | John Miles' Stenographer - Nan Apotheker |
| Page 80 | Redemption - David Morton |
| Page 81 | Pepperell Square - John Hunter Sedgwick |
| Page 86 | God and the Marquis - W. B. Seabrook |
| Page 89 | Popapeeka - Lawrence Vail |
| Page 98 | At the Curb - Vincent Starrett |
| Page 99 | Still Further Addenda to the American Credo - H. J. Roemer, H. R. Keeble & M. A. Murphy |
| Page 101 | Faith - Walter McLaren Imrie |
| Page 113 | The Sacred Story - J. B. Hawley |
| Page 118 | The End - Ralph B. Cooney |
| Page 118 | Keepsakes - Frances Avery Faunce |
| Page 119 | Threnody upon a Decadent Art - Joseph W. Krutch |
| Page 122 | The Faith - Leonard Hall |
| Page 123 | Engaged - Laura Kent Mason |
| Page 126 | Moods - Grace Hazard Conkling |
| Page 127 | The Illumination - Robert Merkle |
| Page 128 | Song - Glenn Ward Dresbach |
| Page 129 | "Splendid et Mondial" - Gaston Roupnel(in French) |
| Page 131 | The Dirt Diggers - George Jean Nathan |
| Page 138 | Consolation - H. L. Mencken |
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| The data in the additional content section is courtesy of Galactic Central. |
