Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956), a newsman known for an ability to stir up controversy, was raised and spent much of his life on 1524 Hollins Street, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the oldest child in the family, and his father wanted him to take over his cigar factory business. But young Mencken was too interested in reading books and writing. He was only in his teens when his father died, so he began writing for a local weekly newspaper.

H.L. Mencken usually read one book a day and his slogan was "One Civilized Reader is Worth a Thousand Boneheads." His favorite author was Mark Twain and he always considered Huckleberry Finn the best book written in America. During his years in journalism, he wrote many books of his own, usually made up of essays or memoirs of his life as a newsman. Two of his most popular books were "Happy Days" and "The American Language".

Most of Mencken's essays and criticism were attacks on puritanism and the "Bible Belt", the failure of democracy, and the Negro and Jewish races. He found nothing good about F.D.R. or the presidents who preceded him. He avoided writing about the first or second World War because he sympathized with Germany and its problem with the Jews. He also had little to say about the 1929 stock market crash.

But in 1925 he took special interest in the Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee. He became the key reporter at the trial and worked with Clarence Darrow and the ACLU to put William Jennings Bryan, the prosecuting attorney, on the witness stand. Bryan opposed evolution being taught in the schools and actually won the trial, though he died several days later after being so humiliated on the witness stand. (In the movie Inherit the Wind, Mencken as a Baltimore reporter is played by actor Gene Kelly.)

Mencken did most of his writing in two magazines he helped edit, "The Smart Set" and "The American Mercury". Many of his essays were printed in "The New Yorker" and he also wrote for the Sun papers and Evening Sun newspapers in Baltimore.

But Mencken never let his social life interfere with his writing. Although he had many girlfriends over the years, he didn't marry until he was in his 50s. His happy marriage to Sara Haardt lasted only four years before she died. His other social activity was the Saturday Night Club, where a good-sized group of amateur musicians practiced on the works of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Mencken played piano in the group and didn't miss many rehearsals until his stroke in 1948. He died in 1956.

Terry Teachout's well-organized account of Mencken's life and career ends with an epitaph that Mencken himself wrote in 1921: "If, after I part this vale, you ever remember me, and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink at some homely girl." "The Skeptic" was published in 2002.