Before H. L. Mencken became "Mencken" he tried his hand at writing
short stories for a wide variety of popular magazines. But
ultimately he decided that fiction was not his forte and instead
focused his energy on the essays and criticism that made him
famous. Mencken's short stories have been virtually forgotten:
omitted from bibliographies, overlooked by scholars, and available
only to intrepid readers who hunted down copies of the original
magazines. Thus The Passing of a Profit, Douglas Olson's collection
of 17 forgotten stories written between 1900 and 1906, will be
welcomed by Mencken aficionados. Sparkling with Mencken's trademark
wit and irony, most of these stories are about "ugly Americans"
pushed to their limits in dealings with "others" women, Europeans,
Latin Americans, and Blacks. Several stories draw upon Mencken's
travels in Jamaica. Although most of these stories are light farces
with abrupt endings, "The Last Cavalry Charge" (1906) is a
terrifying prophecy of the mechanized slaughters that were soon to
define the twentieth century. Nobody who loves H. L. Mencken's
voice will be immune to the charms of these stories. It is not
often that a new book appears by a writer who has been dead for
more than 50 years, but this volume will be new to virtually
everyone. The Passing of a Profit is obligatory reading not merely
for Mencken scholars but also for his legions of avid admirers.
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