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The Sage in Harlem - H. L. Mencken and the Black Writers of the 1920s (Paperback)
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The Sage in Harlem - H. L. Mencken and the Black Writers of the 1920s (Paperback)
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Originally published in 1984. The Sage in Harlem establishes H. L.
Mencken as a catalyst for the blossoming of black literary culture
in the 1920s and chronicles the intensely productive exchange of
ideas between Mencken and two generations of black writers: the Old
Guard who pioneered the Harlem Renaissance and the Young Wits who
sought to reshape it a decade later. From his readings of
unpublished letters and articles from black publications of the
time, Charles Scruggs argues that black writers saw usefulness in
Mencken's critique of American culture, his advocacy of literary
realism, and his satire of America. They understood that realism
could free them from the pernicious stereotypes that had hounded
past efforts at honest portraiture, and that satire could be the
means whereby the white man might be paid back in his own coin.
Scruggs contends that the content of Mencken's observations,
whether ludicrously narrow or dazzlingly astute, was of secondary
importance to the Harlem intellectuals. It was the honesty,
precision, and fearlessness of his expression that proved
irresistible to a generation of artists desperate to be taken
seriously. The writers of the Harlem Renaissance turned to Mencken
as an uncompromising-and uncondescending-commentator whose
criticisms were informed by deep interest in African American life
but guided by the same standards he applied to all literature,
whatever its source. The Sage in Harlem demonstrates how Mencken,
through the example of his own work, his power as editor of the
American Mercury, and his dedication to literary quality, was able
to nurture the developing talents of black authors from James
Weldon Johnson to Richard Wright.
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