The American Mercury magazine was founded in 1924 as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured writing by some of the most important writers in the United States through the 1920s and 1930s. The magazine ended publication in 1981. A collection of magazines A magazine is a periodical publication containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising and/or purchase by readers. ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... H. L. Mencken Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956), better known as H. L. Mencken, was a twentieth-century journalist, satirist and social critic, a cynic and a freethinker, known as the Sage of Baltimore and the American Nietzsche. He is often regarded as one of the... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

"The Gaudiest and Damnedest"

Mencken and Nathan had previously edited The Smart Set literary magazine together, when not producing their own books and, in Mencken's case, regular journalism for the Baltimore Sun. With their mutual book publisher Alfred A. Knopf serving as the publisher, Mencken and Nathan created The American Mercury as "a serious review, the gaudiest and damnedest ever seen in the Republic," as Mencken explained the name (derived from a 19th century publication) to his old friend and contributor, Theodore Dreiser: "What we need is something that looks highly respectable outwardly. The American Mercury is almost perfect for that purpose. What will go on inside the tent is another story. You will recall that the late P. T. Barnum got away with burlesque shows by calling them moral lectures." The Smart Set was a literary magazine founded in 1900. ... Literature is literally acquaintance with letters as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning an individual written character (letter)). The term has generally come to identify a collection of texts, which in Western culture are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction... A collection of magazines A magazine is a periodical publication containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising and/or purchase by readers. ... Journalism is a discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying, and presenting information gathered regarding current events, including trends, issues and people. ... The Baltimore Sun is the major newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland, with a daily press run of about 430,000 copies, and a Sunday run of 540,000 copies. ... Theodore Dreiser, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1933 Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American naturalist author known for dealing with the gritty reality of life. ... Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) by Mathew Brady 1856 newspaper advertisement for Barnums American Museum Parody of Jenny Linds first American tour for P.T. Barnum, New York City, October 1850 Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891), American showman who...

And, from 1924 through 1933, Mencken---Nathan resigned as his co-editor a year after the magazine was born---provided precisely what he promised: elegantly irreverent observations of America, aimed at what he called "Americans realistically," those of sophisticated skepticism of enough that was popular and much that threatened to be. Simeon Strunsky in the New York Times observed that, "The dead hand of the yokelry on the instinct for beauty cannot be so heavy if the handsome green and black cover of The American Mercury exists." The quote was used on the subscription form for the magazine during its heyday. Simeon Strunsky, A.B. (1879- ) was an American essayist, born at Vitebsk, Russia. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

The January 1924 issue sold more than 15,000 copies and by the end of that first year the circulation was over 42,000. In early 1928 the circulation reached a height of over 84,000, but declined steadily after the Stock Market crash. The magazine published literature by Eugene O'Neill, Carl Sandburg, William Faulkner, Sinclair Lewis, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Albert Jay Nock, W.E.B. Du Bois, Sherwood Anderson, Edgar Lee Masters, and, needless to say, Mencken himself. The magazine published others, from newspapermen and academics to convicts and taxi drivers, but its primary emphasis soon became non-fiction and usually satirical essays; its "Americana" section--containing items clipped from newspapers and other magazines nationwide--became a much-imitated feature, and Mencken further spiced the package with aphorisms printed in the magazine's margins whenever space allowed. Eugene ONeill Eugene Gladstone ONeill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning American playwright. ... Time magazine, December 4, 1939 Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, historian, novelist, balladeer and folklorist. ... William Faulkner photographed 1954 by Carl Van Vechten William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was a Nobel Prize-winning novelist from Mississippi. ... Sinclair Lewis Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 — January 10, 1951) was an American novelist and playwright. ... F.Scott Fitzgerald, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1937 Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an Irish American Jazz Age novelist and short story writer. ... Langston Hughes, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1936 Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, novelist, playwright, and newspaper columnist. ... Albert Jay Nock (October 13, 1870 or 1872 - August 19, 1945) was an influential American libertarian author, educational theorist, and social critic of the early and middle 20th century. ... William Edward Burghardt DuBois (February 23, 1868 - August 27, 1963) was an African-American civil rights leader and scholar. ... Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American writer, mainly of short stories, most notably the collection Winesburg, Ohio. ... Edgar Lee Masters (August 23, 1868 - March 5, 1950) was an American poet, biographer and dramatist. ...

Censorship Knocked Into A Cocked "Hatrack"

H.L. Mencken rarely if ever flinched from controversy, and he found himself in the thick of it when The American Mercury was just over two years old, when the April 1926 issue published "Hatrack," a chapter from Herbert Asbury's Up From Methodism. The chapter described a reputedly true story: a prostitute in Asbury's childhood in Farmington, Missouri, nicknamed Hatrack because of her angular physique, and a regular churchgoer seeking genuine forgiveness but, shunned by the town's reputed good people, returning to her sinful life. Herbert Asbury (September 1, 1889 – February 24, 1963) was an American journalist and writer probably best known for his The Gangs of New York, which Martin Scorsese adapted into a 2002 film. ...

If that seems a straightforward and uncontroversial enough description, consider that in 1926 it was just enough at the edge that the Rev. J. Frank Chase of the Watch and Ward Society, which monitored material sold in Boston for obscenity, decided "Hatrack" was immoral and had a Harvard Square magazine peddler arrested for selling a copy of the issue. That provoked Mencken himself to visit Boston and sell Chase himself a copy, the better to be arrested for the cameras. Tried and acquitted, Mencken's courageous stance for freedom of the press cost him regardless: over $20,000 in legal fees, lost revenue, and lost advertising. The Watch and Ward Society was a Boston, Massachusetts organization involved in the censorship of books and the performing arts from the late 19th Century to the middle of the 20th Century. ...

Mencken sued Chase and won, a federal judge ruling the prelate's organisation committed an illegal restraint of trade and prosecutors, not private activists, should censor literature, assuming anyone should. But following the trial, the Solicitor of the U. S. Post Office Department Donnelly ruled the April 1926 American Mercury was obscene---the federal Comstock Law, he ruled, barred the issue from delivery through the U.S. Post Office. Mencken challenged Donnelly, arousing the prospect of a landmark free speech case before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and legendary Justice Learned Hand. But because the April 1926 Mercury had already been mailed, an injunction was no longer an appropriate remedy. A previous USPS logo A USPS truck in San Francisco A smaller truck (a Long Life Vehicle or LLV) used in suburban areas The United States Postal Service (USPS) is an independent establishment of the executive branch of the United States government (see ) responsible for providing postal service in the... The Comstock Law was a 19th century United States law that made it illegal to send any obscene, lewd, or lascivious books through the mail. ... Freedom of speech is the right to freely say what one pleases, as well as the related right to hear what others have stated. ... The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: District of Connecticut Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of New York District of Vermont The Second Circuit hears argument at the Thurgood Marshall U... Billings Learned Hand (January 27, 1872 – August 18, 1961) — usually called just Learned Hand — was a famed American judge and an avid supporter of free speech, though he is most remembered for applying economic reasoning to American tort law. ... An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that either prohibits or compels (restrains or enjoins) a party from continuing a particular activity. ...

Exit Mencken

Mencken resigned as editor of his creation at the end of 1933, and The American Mercury was then edited by his assistant, Charles Angoff. At first, the magazine was seen as moving farther left, but a year after Mencken left Knopf sold the Mercury to Paul A. Palmer, a Mencken colleague at the Baltimore Sun. By 1936, Palmer had continued the Mencken standard in its content but changed its appearance: it now had the same pocket size as Reader's Digest. Three years later, the magazine changed hands again, Palmer selling to the Mercury's business manager, Lawrence E. Spivak.

Revival

Spivak even more than Palmer revived the Mercury for a brief but vigorous period---Mencken, Nathan, and Angoff themselves contributed essays to the magazine again. From there, Spivak created a company to publish the magazine, Mercury Press, and soon the company began publishing other magazines, including Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (1941) and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1949. But perhaps in new financial difficulty, the Mercury merged with Common Sense in 1946, and by 1950 the new Mercury owner was Clendenin J. Ryan, who changed the name to The New American Mercury. Ryan began another transformation of the magazine, toward another direction, but it would take a familiar journalist to finish what he began. Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine is a monthly fiction digest magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1941 calendar). ... F&SF April 1971, special Poul Anderson issue. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday. ...

Huie's Experiment

William Bradford Huie--whose work had appeared in the magazine before--had gleaned the beginning of a new, post-World War II American conservative intellectual movement. He sensed correctly that Ryan had begun to guide The American Mercury toward that direction. He also opened the magazine's pages to more mass-appeal writing, by the like of the Rev. Billy Graham and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. With boldness if anything, Huie seemed en route producing what one of his staffers would have an easier time producing a few years later--the young William F. Buckley, Jr., whose God and Man at Yale was a best seller, worked for Huie's Mercury, invaluable experience for his 1955 creation of the longer-living, deeper respected National Review. Buckley would succeed at what Huie was unable to realise: a periodical that united the nascent but already differing strands of this new conservative movement. William Bradford Bill Huie (November 13, 1910 – November 22, 1986) was an American journalist, editor, publisher and author. ... The Rev. ... Hoover in 1961 John Edgar Hoover KBE (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was the founder of the FBI in its present form and its director from May 10, 1924 until his death in 1972. ... William F. Buckley William Frank Buckley Jr. ... National Review (NR) is a conservative/libertarian political magazine founded by author William F. Buckley Jr. ...

To The Fever Swamps

The problem was money: Huie found himself having a difficult time sustaining the Mercury as he pursued the new direction, and in the end it forced him to sell to a sometime financial contributor, J. Russell Maguire, in August 1952. That sale spelled the end of The American Mercury as both a serious and respectable magazine, though it would take almost thirty years to put the magazine into its grave.

Within a very short time, Maguire steered the magazine "toward the fever swamps of anti-Semitism," as National Review publisher William A. Rusher would describe it. Various interest groups which began only with the Anti-Defamation League attacked Maguire's Mercury for its ongoing and increasing Jew-baiting, particularly when it drew a number of purportedly anti-Jewish comments from the writings of Mencken himself back for reprint. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Maguire did not remain long as the magazine's owner/publisher, but what he started other owners continued and metastasised for the rest of the magazine's life. Maguire sold the Mercury to the Defenders of the Christian Faith, Inc. in 1961; the DCF sold it to the Legion for the Survival of Freedom in 1963, and the LSF cut a deal in June 1966 with the Washington Observer that telegraphed a merger with Western Destiny. And, by now, The American Mercury was a quarterly, with barely seven thousand readers engaged by content devoted almost exclusively to attacking Jews and blacks, and other minorities.

The Final Death

By 1979, The American Mercury wasn't even a topic among respectable readers. A 1978 article praised Hitler as the "greatest Spenglerian"; another new ownership for the exhausted magazine was announced in fall 1979; the spring 1980 issue celebrated Mencken's centennial . . . and lamented the passage of his era, "before the virus of social, racial, and sexual equality" grew in "fertile soil in the minds of most Americans." The last issue concluded with a plea for contributions to build a computer index---with information about the fifteen thousand most dangerous political activists, actual or alleged, in the United States.

Legacy

Mencken's continuing influence, and that of the contributors he drew aboard in the magazine's first decades, make it likely that The American Mercury as he created it will outlast what his eventual successors made of it beginning with Huie's departure. Enough of his books remain in print, featuring pieces he wrote or adapted for publication in the Mercury that the core of the magazine's founding spirit can be gleaned even now. History in due course will be kinder to The American Mercury as Mencken and Nathan birthed it to be than it will to the magazine as the post-Huie ownerships drove it to be.

But there is another portion of The American Mercury's legacy that millions today may not even know. In the 1940s, while editing the magazine, Lawrence Spivak created a radio program called American Mercury Presents Meet the Press. Brought to television later, the show shed the first three words of its name---and remains the single longest-running news program in television, a fixture on NBC every Sunday. Meet the Press (MTP) is a weekly television news show produced by NBC. It started as a radio show in 1945, as American Mercury Presents: Meet the Press, and was later adapted for television. ...