WI: Mark Twain and H. L. Mencken met professionally?

[1940LaSalle]

On the one hand, we have the wry, rural humor of consummately 19th century Samuel Langhorne Clemens, himself a one-time newspaper man. On the other hand, we have the irascible urbanity of H(enry) L(ouis) Mencken, commentator and editor of the Baltimore Sun, a decidedly early 20th century intellect. They shared a dim view of politicians and a love of newspapers, at the least.

What would happen if America's storyteller met the Sage of Baltimore? It would have to have happened in the first decade of the 20th century: I say it would have to be somewhere in the 1906-1908 range, after downtown Baltimore was rebuilt after the 1904 fire, meaning the Sun was back at full throttle at its Baltimore and Charles Streets location--and it would have to be before Twain's health and advancing age prevented either travel or visitors. (I'm postulating that Twain would have visited Mencken, since he was not bound by daily job requirements.)

Would they get along and indeed spur new creativity or commentary? Or would Mencken write off Twain as yesterday's news, and too rural to boot? And in the latter case, would Twain dismiss Mencken as a crass voice of the new century with no traces of subtlety or humor? What would you say?

 

[overoceans]

I've read quite a bit of Mencken, anything I can get my hands on actually, but I can't quite recall his saying anything about Mark Twain. That said, I think there'd be at least a few commonalities to help them hit it off...

1. Anti-religion. No further explanation needed for anyone who knows either man, though Twain's contribution to that particular field might be less well-known.

2. General social liberalism. On this, Twain might actually regard Mencken as too conservative. They both inveighed against lynching, for example, but The United States Of Lyncherdom goes considerably beyond Mencken's measured phrasings such as "...condemned by all civilized people".

3. Anti-southernism/agrarianism. Again, Mencken is the more obvious(and vitriolic) standard-bearer here, but disparagment of the Southern mythology is a recurrent theme in Twain as well(eg. "the Duke and the Dolphin" exploiting the stupid anglophilia of southerners; his comments about Sir Walter Scott birthing the misguided tradition of chivalry). FWIW, both men came from border states vis a vis the Confederacy, but depending on how you regard Missouri, Mencken might actually have the better claim to being a true southerner.

As a point of contention, I think Mencken's (not entirely serious) social darwinism might be a little alien to Twain, though I'd imagine Twain was familiar with the ideas, even if he didn't fully assimilate them into his worldview.

As for Mencken possibly regarding Twain as some backwoods clownster, well, I can't say I recall old Henry Louis writing anything quite as, umm, cosmopolitan, as the following...

Some Thoughts On The Science Of Onanism

The actual text is considerably less euphemistic, eg. "A jerk in the hand is worth two in the bush".

 

[SenatorChickpea]

If anyone writes a timeline with a scene where Twain, Mencken and Ambrose Bierce stay up late in a bar writing invective, they should be given a special Turtledove.

 

[Somedevil]

No way could anyone by the early 1900's see Mark Twain as backwoods. I mean he had lived in San Francisco and by then settled in his Manhattan residence

That would be a interesting meeting tho and kinda shocked if they never at lest met in passing at some party in Philadelphia , DC or NYC

 

[1940LaSalle]

No way could anyone by the early 1900's see Mark Twain as backwoods. I mean he had lived in San Francisco and by then settled in his Manhattan residence

That would be a interesting meeting tho and kinda shocked if they never at lest met in passing at some party in Philadelphia , DC or NYC

When I said "rural" I meant his general style of storytelling. That said, as noted above, Mencken wouldn't have been much of a traveler then given the constraints of his job. That's why I suggest the meeting would have been in Baltimore. Further, it was several years down the road before he and George Jean Nathan collaborated on The American Mercury, which required not-infrequent New York trips.

A very small amount of research indicates Mencken was a great admirer of Twain, and that by 1906, he was writing editorials for the Baltimore Sun. So...let's posit a stopover for Twain en route from Washington to New York, wherein he cables the young editor, "ARRIVING 11:35 FROM D.C. MEET IN BAR OF RENNERT HOTEL. S. L. CLEMENS". He does so since he wants to meet the iconoclastic young man who has already made a name for himself in journalism with one of the nation's premier newspapers. That may be the start of something big.