The Joseph C. Goulden Collection of H.L. Mencken
The Collection consists of some 80 works by and about H.L. Mencken, including several first editions autographed by Mr. Mencken. The works were donated from the private collection of Joseph C. Goulden of Washington, D.C.
The collection is available for research within the Mayme Jarrett Library.
About H.L. Mencken
H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880-1956), known as the "Sage of Baltimore" was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a student of American English. The American Language, a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States , is one of his well-known writings.
The famous Scopes trial was reported by Mencken in his satirical style calling it the "Monkey" trial. (In the famous play, Inherit the Wind, the character of journalist E.K. Hornbeck is based on H.L. Mencken, capturing both the wit and cynicism of Mencken. In the 1960 movie version the part was played by Gene Kelly in one of his few purely dramatic roles.)
An excellent example of the wit of Mencken is shown through one of the most enduring hoaxes of the times - one that has lasted to this day. On December 28, 1917 he wrote an article entitled "A Neglected Anniversary" - a phony history of the bathtub which America took as fact. The text of the article gained such momentum that the following edited version was published in newspapers across the U.S. soon after the original appeared:
The Rise of the Bathtub
The first bathtub in the United States was installed in Cincinnati December 20, 1842, by Adam Thompson. It was made of mahogany and lined with sheet lead. At a Christmas party he exhibited and explained it and four guests later took a plunge. The next day the Cincinnati paper devoted many columns to the new invention and it gave rise to violent controversy.
Some papers designated it as an epicurian luxury, others called it undemocratic, as it lacked simplicity in its surroundings. Medical authorities attacked it as dangerous to health.
The controversy reached other cities, and in more than one place medical opposition was reflected in legislation. In 1843 the Philadelphia Common Council considered an ordinance prohibiting bathing between November 1 and March 15, and this ordinance failed of passage by but two votes.
During the same year the Legislature of Virginia laid a tax of $30 a year on all bathtubs that might be set up. In Hartford, Providence, Charleston and Wilmington special and very heavy water rates were laid on persons who had bathtubs. Boston in 1845 made bathing unlawful except on medical advice, but the ordinance was never enforced and in 1862 it was repealed.
President Millard Fillmore gave the bathtub recognition and respectability. While Vice President he visted Cincinnati in 1850 on a stumping tour and inspected the original bathtub and used it. Experiencing no ill effects he became an ardent advocate, and on becoming President he had a tub installed in the White House. The Secretary of War invited bids for the installation. This tub continued to be the one in use until the first Cleveland Administration.
Mencken himself was astonished at the continuing acceptance of his column as fact and in 1949, some 32 years after the article first appeared, he was quoted as saying:
The success of this idle hoax, done in time of war, when more serious writing was impossible, vastly astonished me. It was taken gravely by a great many other newspapers, and presently made its way into medical literature and into standard reference books. It had, of course, no truth in it whatsoever, and I more than once confessed publicly that it was only a jocosity... Scarcely a month goes by that I do not find the substance of it reprinted, not as foolishness but as fact, and not only in newspapers but in official documents and other works of the highest pretensions.
About Joseph C. Goulden
Joseph C. Goulden grew up in Marshall, is a former reporter for the Marshall News Messenger, Dallas Morning News, and Philadelphia Inquirer. While at the Inquirer he became chief of the paper's Washington D.C. Bureau. He has authored or co-authored 18 books. One of his works, The Superlawyers, was on the New York Times Best Seller List for 23 weeks, rising to number three. Goulden also served in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps.
While a student at the University of Texas, Goulden became acquainted with the works of Mencken. Later, while serving in the Army stationed in Baltimore, Goulden had the chance to meet Mencken's brother, August, in the very home in which H.L. lived. August took care of his brother after he had a disabling stroke in 1948.
"As I sat in the living room I realized, Wow! I am in his chair and that bell jar on the side table is what Sarah Haardt gave Mr. Mencken as a wedding present," remarked Goulden, recalling his visit. Later Goulden began purchasing Mencken's books in new or used bookstores around Baltimore.
Goulden is very familiar with ETBU as he attended many post World War II Tiger football and basketball games as a youth. A favorite boyhood pastime of his was playing sandlot baseball on the Tigers' football practice field.
"I am happy that the collection has a home," said Goulden. "And I find it both ironic and fitting that they come to rest only a few blocks up the hill from where I spent much of a splendid boyhood."
[the above description originally appeared in the Fall 2010 The Hilltop and was written by Mike Midkiff]
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