A Religious Orgy in Tennessee: A Reporter's Account of the Scopes Monkey Trial

by Mencken, H. L.

• ISBN13: 9781933633176
• ISBN10: 1933633174
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-09-01
• Publisher: Random House

Summary

"The native American Voltaire, the enemy of all puritans, the heretic in the Sunday school, the one-man demolition crew of the genteel tradition."-Alistair Cooke   Fiercely intelligent, scathingly honest, and hysterically funny, H.L. Mencken's coverage of the Scopes Monkey Trial so galvanized the nation that it eventually inspired a Broadway play and hit movie.   Mencken's no-nonsense sensibility is still exciting: his perceptive rendering of the courtroom drama; his piercing portrayals of key figures Scopes, Clarence Darrow, and William Jennings Bryan; his ferocious take on the fundamentalist culture surrounding it all-including a raucous midnight trip into the woods to witness a secret "holy roller" service.   Shockingly, these reports have never been gathered together into a book of their own-until now.   A Religious Orgy in Tennessee includes all of Mencken's reports for The Baltimore Sun , The Nation , and The American Mercury . It even includes his coverage of Bryan's death just days after the trial-an obituary so withering Mencken was forced to rewrite it (both versions are included, although the rewrite seems, if anything, even less forgiving).   With the rise of "intelligent design," Mencken's work has never seemed more unnervingly timely-or timeless.   H.L. Mencken wrote for The Baltimore Sun for almost fifty years. He was known for a savage wit, an erudite if salty language, and an iconoclastic outlook that saw through politicians and fads with fearless abandon. He died in 1956.  

Author Biography

H.L. Mencken is one of American history's foremost journalists. Writing from the turn of the century until the late 1940's for the Baltimore Sun newspaper, he was known for a savage wit, an erudite if salty language, and an iconoclastic outlook that saw through politicians and fads with fearless abandon. He died in 1956.

Editor Art Winslow writes frequently for the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Bookforum, and was, for many years, Literary Editor and Executive Editor of The Nation.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Art Winslow	ix
I: The Tennessee Circus	3	(8)
II: Homo Neanderthalensis	11	(8)
III: In Tennessee	19	(8)
IV: Mencken Finds Daytonians Full of Sickening Doubts About Value of Publicity	27	(8)
V: Impossibility of Obtaining Fair Jury Insures Scopes' Conviction, Says Mencken	35	(6)
VI: Mencken Likens Trial to a Religious Orgy, with Defendant a Beelzebub	41	(8)
VII: Yearning Mountaineers' Souls Need Reconversion Nightly, Mencken Finds	49	(12)
VIII: Darrow's Eloquent Appeal Wasted on Ears That Heed Only Bryan, Says Mencken	61	(6)
IX: Law and Freedom, Mencken Discovers, Yield Place to Holy Writ in Rhea County	67	(8)
X: Mencken Declares Strictly Fair Trial Is Beyond Ken of Tennessee Fundamentalists	75	(6)
XI: Malone the Victor, Even Though Court Sides with Opponents, Says Mencken	81
XII: Battle Now Over, Mencken Sees; Genesis Triumphant and Ready for New Jousts	78	(17)
XIII: Tennessee in the Frying Pan	95	(8)
XIV: Bryan	103	(8)
XV: Round Two	111	(8)
XVI: Aftermath	119	(8)
XVII: To Expose a Fool	127	(10)
Photographs	137	(10)
Appendix: The Examination of William Jennings Bryan by Clarence Darrow	147