Marion Elizabeth Rodgers
Marion Elizabeth Rodgers is a scholar, author, and editor recognized as the foremost authority on H. L. Mencken.[1]
Mencken scholarship
Rodgers became interested in Mencken while researching Sara Haardt, who had attended Goucher College from whence Rodgers graduated in 1981. She discovered a trove of correspondences between Mencken and his eventual wife which she compiled and edited as the book Mencken and Sara: A Life in Letters: The Private Correspondence of H.L. Mencken and Sara Haardt.
Certainly Mencken’s name came up during the course of my studies. But my real introduction to Mencken was shortly before my graduation from Goucher College, in 1981, while I was researching the papers of Southern writer and alumna Sara Haardt, whom Mencken had married, thereby shattering his reputation as “America’s Foremost Bachelor.” I was putting away one of her scrapbooks in the vault of the library when I literally tripped over a box of love letters between her and Mencken. Taped to the top of the collection was a stern command, written by Mencken, that it was not to be opened until that very year. To say that my life changed at that moment would be an understatement. Suddenly, a door was swung open into Mencken’s life through the tender route of romantic correspondence. In those days my dream was to go to graduate school and write (yet another!) dull thesis on T. S. Eliot. Instead, I focused my degree on the Mencken/Haardt collection, promptly received a book contract, and became hooked.[2]
Rodgers authored a lavishly praised biography, Mencken: The American Iconoclast.
For the Library of America Rodgers edited a reprint of Mencken's Prejudices books, as well as an expanded edition of Mencken's three memoirs known as the Days books.[14][15]
Personal life
Rodgers was born October 31, 1958, in
Selected works as author, editor, speaker, contributor
Books
- Mencken and Sara: A Life in Letters: The Private Correspondence of H.L. Mencken and Sara Haardt (McGraw-Hill Companies, 1987)
- The Impossible H.L. Mencken: A Selection of His Best Newspaper Stories, editor (Anchor, 1991)
- Mencken: The American Iconoclast (Oxford University Press, 2005)
- Notes on Democracy: A New Edition (by H. L. Mecken), introduction and annotation (Dissident Books, 2008)
- Prejudices: The Complete Series, editor and annotatation (Library of America 2010)
Articles
- By His Own Rules: H. L. Mencken, a cigar always in hand, was the most influential commentator of his time (Cigar Aficionado, Summer 1994)
- H.L. Mencken: Courage in a Time of Lynching (Nieman Reports, Summer 2006)
- The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow (review, The Washington Times, August 16, 2009)
- Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women (review, The Washington Times, November 1, 2009)
- Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife (review, The Washington Times, December 6, 2009)
- Mark Twain: Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years (review, The Washington Times, April 9, 2010)
- Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment (review, The Washington Times, April 23, 2010)
- H.L. Mencken would skewer Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump (The Washington Times, October 10, 2016)
- The Savaging of Laura Ingalls Wilder (The American Spectator, July 6. 2018)
- Memories of Edmund Morris (The American Spectator, May 30, 2019)
- H.L. Mencken on Independence Day: 'We Have Borne Rascality Since 1776, and We Continue To Survive’ (Reason, July 3, 2019)
- The Alt-Right Loves H.L. Mencken. The Feeling Would Not Have Been Mutual. (Reason, September 12, 2018)
- H.L. Mencken on 'Numskull' Presidents, the Spanish Flu, and the Depression (Reason, March 20, 2020)
Speeches
- Mencken: The American Iconoclast (C-SPAN, 2005)
- H. L. Mencken and George S. Schuyler (Baltimore Bar Library, Mitchell Courthouse, Baltimore, MD., March 10, 2016)
- Mencken and Religion (Baltimore Bar Library, Mitchell Courthouse, Baltimore, May 9, 2018)
- H. L. Mencken: The German-American from Baltimore (The Society for the History of Germans in Maryland, date unknown)
Interviews
- Writings of H.L. Mencken (C-SPAN, 2002)
- Mencken and Making of an Ink-Stained Wretch (C-SPAN 2005)
- Marion Elizabeth Rodgers interview, 2006 (Connie Martinson Talks Books, 2006)
- The Library of America interviews Marion Elizabeth Rodgers about H. L. Mencken (2010)
- Book Interview: “Prejudices” Complete — The World According to H. L. Mencken (The Arts Fuse, October 26, 2010)
- Marion Elizabeth Rodgers on the new, expanded edition of H. L. Mencken’s autobiographical trilogy (2014)
- More Mencken (Baltimore City Paper, September 9, 2014)
References
- ^ "Marion Elizabeth Rodgers". UMBC.edu. University of Maryland. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- ^ Rich Kelley (September 2010). "The Library of America interviews Marion Elizabeth Rodgers about H. L. Mencken" (PDF). Library of America. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- ^ Douglas Kennedy. "Mencken: The American iconoclast, by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers". independent.co.uk. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- ^ Peter Preston. "Super hack". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- ^ "The American Iconoclast". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- ^ Martin F. Nolan. "A detailed portrait of editor, writer, and crusader H. L. Mencken". archive.boston.com. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- ^ Joseph C. Goulden. "Mencken: The American Iconoclast: The Life and Times of the Bad Boy of Baltimore". washingtontimes.com. The Washington Times. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- ^ John Lessenberry (January 13, 2006). "Mencken gets his masterpiece". toledoblade.com. Toledo Blade. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- ^ "Mencken: The American Iconoclast". booktopia.com. August 10, 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- ^ Martin F. Nolan (January 8, 2006). "A detailed portrait of editor, writer, and crusader H. L. Mencken". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ Terry Teachout (December 2005). "Mencken No. 3". The New Criterion. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ Kennedy, Douglas (February 24, 2006). "Mencken: The American iconoclast, by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers". The Independent. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
- ^ "MARION ELIZABETH RODGERS '81 TO SPEAK ABOUT MENCKEN". Goucher College. April 1, 2006. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
- ^ Bill Marx (October 26, 2010). "Book Interview: "Prejudices" Complete — The World According to H. L. Mencken". The Arts Fuse. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ Mary Carole McCauley (September 20, 2014). "An expanded version of H.L. Mencken's 'Days' trilogy will be released Thursday". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ "William Rodgers: 1928 - 2021". Legacy. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ "Rodgers, Marion Elizabeth 1958–". encyclopedia.com. Gale. 2009. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- ^ "3042 Q Street in Georgetown: Built in 1840 or 1940?". March 14, 2012. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- ^ Jules Witcover (December 13, 2022). "Jules Witcover: On ending a lifetime of writing about American politics". The Northern Virginia Daily. Retrieved 20 December 2022.