Identifier	mcml005
Title	Letter: H. L. Mencken to Gerald Johnson, June 1, 1936
Transcript	COPY June 1, 1936 . Gerald W. Johnson, Esq. , Evening Sun , Baltimore, Md . Dear Johnson : If it has any odor at all I insist that it must be the scent of Araby. Furthermore, I guess that the book as a whole will make pretty good reading. My own share is now in its last stages and Frank Kent is about finishing. Let us sit down together after the two conventions and perfect the text. After that we can have it set up in the office and circulate proofs among all parties interested. I think it should be read carefully by at least a dozen different men. Certainly one of them should be Jimmy Dove . The other day I sent you a Maryland madstone, properly authenticated by the State Board of Examiners. It should be treated as if it were radium. If you carry it in your pants' pocket you are apt to get a serious burn . God help us all . Yours , (signed)H. L. Mencken
Creator	Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956
Subject	Baltimore (Md.) Books Letters Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956
Description	Letter from H. L. Mencken to Gerald Johnson dated June 1, 1936. Gerald White Johnson (1890-1980) was a North Carolinian who, at Mencken's suggestion, joined the staff of the Baltimore Evening Sun in June 1926. He remained until November 1943, when he resigned to become a free-lance writer. Besides being a distinguished journalist and essayist, Johnson published over forty books. Mencken, the bourgeois Baltimorean, wrote for the Evening Sun on Mondays; Johnson, the liberal Southerner, wrote in a quieter but equally effective voice on Thursdays. The men stood at a crossroads in American history looking in opposite directions. Mencken's letter here concerns The Sunpapers of Baltimore (1937), which was written by Mencken, Johnson, Frank R. Kent and Hamilton Owens. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, the volume was very well received. The Maryland madstone was typical Mencken japery.
Publisher (Electronic Version)	Enoch Pratt Free Library
Holding Institution	Enoch Pratt Free Library
Date Original	1914-02-24
Date Digital	2005-05-19
Type	Text
Format	Digital reproduction of 1-page document, dimensions unknown.
Source	H. L. Mencken Room
Relation	Is Part Of the H. L. Mencken Collection Is Part Of the Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage Program
Coverage	1931-1940
Rights	This item is owned by the Estate of H. L. Mencken. Permission to publish or reproduce this document or a quotation from this document is required and must be obtained from the H. L. Mencken Estate. For more information, please call 410-396-5430 and ask to be connected to the Mencken Room.