February 03, 2010
Arkansas Prays For Mencken (1931)
There’s a saying on the Internet: Do not feed the troll. A troll is someone who posts inflammatory statements to draw attention to themselves, and the only way to deal with them is to ignore them.But no keyboard commando holding forth from his parent’s basement could hold a candle to the King Troll of American journalism, Henry Louis Mencken. In his half-century behind the typewriter, Mencken savaged everything he disliked with wit and malice.
As for the Arkansas legislature, the trouble started in January 1931, after farmers in England, Arkansas, battered by the Depression and drought, nearly rioted when Red Cross food shipments were delayed, Mencken wrote in the Baltimore Sun that the people of Arkansas “are too stupid to know what is the matter with them, and even if they are intelligent, they would lack the capital to make a change.”
The politicians protested, although the Arkansas Gazette advised the legislature not to feed the troll, saying people “fail to realize that they are merely playing Mencken’s game when they denounce his denunciations.” But the lawmakers, on this day, passed a motion asking people to pray for Mencken’s soul.
Mencken was unbowed by the threat of divine intercession. "My only defense is that I didn't make Arkansas the butt of ridicule," Mencken said. "God did."
Born: Ignacy Krasicki, poet, satirist, Dubiecko, Poland, 1735; Gertrude Stein, novelist, poet, Allegheny, Penn., 1874; Horace Greeley, journalist, newspaper editor, Amherst, N.H., 1811; James Michener, novelist, Doylestown, Penn., 1907; Simone Weil, religious philosopher, Paris, 1909; Joan Lowery Nixon, childrens author, Los Angeles, 1927.
Died: George Crabbe, poet, author, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, 1832; Everhardus Johannes Potgieter, poet, essayist, literary critic, Amsterdam, 1808; Robert Tressell (ps. Robert Noonan), novelist, Liverpool, 1911; Ralph McGill, newspaper editor, Atlanta, Ga., 1969.
Quote for the Day: “[If ‘Tales from the South Pacific’ hadn’t been so successful] it would have been a much harder road and whether I could have surmounted it, I don't know. If I had pressed on and not had any acceptance, I could have been a very bitter guy.” — James Michener, novelist, who was born today in 1907.
Also from “Writers 365":
- Faulkner Goes Postal (1924)
- Have A Heart, Thomas Hardy (1928)
- Babbitt Does Stockholm (1930)
- C.S. Lewis: Can You Hear Me, God? (1931)
- Dashiel Hammett’s dirty weekend (1931)
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