American Mercury, The, A Monthly Review Edited by H.L. Mencken & George Jean Nathan, January 1924; Vol. I No. 1, First Issue

New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1924. 17 x 25 cm. With Mencken as editor one might expect brilliance, and this inaugural issue has it. The Editorial announces the intent of the new magazine to devote itself pleasantly to exposing the nonsensicality of hallucinations of utopianism and the lot. The lead article ""The Lincoln Legend"" by Isaac R. Pennypacker, gives a new and more robust look at the life of President Abraham Lincoln. His forefathers were iron-masters, capable leaders in their communities, giving a lie to the myth of the simple railsplitter. As a war leader, Pennypacker compares him with Jefferson Davis, and Lincoln comes up far superior. ""The Drool Method in History"" by Harry E. Barnes is a humorous attack on purveyors of ""pure history"" --- the superiority of the Aryans, the discovery of America was by well-meaning religious people; the sole cause of our ancestors' embarking upon wintry seas to come to the New World was religious freedom; Loyalists in the Revolution were a gang of degenerate drunkards and perverts, etc. ""The Tragic Hiram"" by John W. Owens is contemporary political commentary, about Borah, La Follette, Hoover and Harding-- but skewering Johnson. Magazine, writing on advertisement, first page of magazine: ""Ruth Schliveh's shower Jan. 19, 1924""� and ""Bill Paxton Brown U. 1924."" Very good. . Catalogs: Literature/History.