The Life and Riotous Times of H.L. Mencken

“Written with verve, intellectual sophistication, and a prickly wit worthy of its eminent subject. . . . A first-class piece of literate entertainment” ( The New Yorker ).   Before he went on to become a celebrated biographer and historian, renowned for such works as A World Lit Only by Fire , American Caesar , and The Last Lion , William Manchester worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun in the 1940s—and it was there that he met fellow journalist H. L. Mencken.