The appearance in 1920 of H. L. Mencken's scathing essay about the
intellectual and cultural impoverishment of the South, "The Sahara
of the Bozart", set off a firestorm of reaction in the region that
continued unabated for much of the next decade. In Serpent in Eden,
Mencken scholar Fred Hobson examines Mencken's love-hate
relationship with the South. He explores not only Mencken's savage
criticism of the region but also his efforts to encourage southern
writers and the bold "little magazines", such as the Reviewer and
the Double Dealer, that started up in the South during the
1920s.
Originally published in 1974.
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