In the second volume of his autobiographical writings, H. L. Mencken recalls his early years as a reporter. On January 16, 1899, Mencken applied for a job with the Baltimore Morning Herald, much to the editor's amusement. But Mencken persisted, and came back to the offices night after night until finally, in February, the editor sent him out into a blizzard to see if anything worth printing was happening on the snow-covered streets. Soon, Mencken was assigned to the police beat, and then to city hall, where the really big crooks worked. Mencken learned his craft so well that by 1901 he had become the Herald's Sunday editor, and in 1906 he was hired as an editor of the Baltimore Sun, where he quickly attracted a national following. Sustained by a steady diet of crabs, cigars, whiskey, and beer, he haunted Baltimore's jails and courtrooms, its churches, theaters, and saloons, and chased fire wagons, interviewed cops and coroners, battled politicians and crusaders, then raced back to the newsroom to beat his deadline by a second or two.
- ISBN10 0801853400
- ISBN13 9780801853401
- Publish Date 30 July 1996
- Publish Status Unknown
- Out of Print 14 September 2009
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 340
- Language English