HAPPY DAYS by MENCKEN, H. L - 1940

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1940. FIRST EDITION. 223 x 253 mm. (8 3/4 x 6"). 1 p. l., xi, [i], 313, [3] pp.
Publisher's oatmeal colored buckram, blind-stamped red and blue. Original dust jacket, price clipped. With frontispiece portrait of the author as a young boy. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR on the front free endpaper. Dust jacket a little tattered along the edges and with one quarter-inch tear, spine somewhat toned, a few light scratches, binding with a touch of soiling at foot of spine, but still a very good copy overall and the contents pristine.

This is a very good copy of the first volume of H . L. Mencken's three volume memoir, signed by the author. Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) was an American journalist, scholar, and critic best known for his study of spoken English in the United States ("The American Language"), and for his work at the Herald and Baltimore Sun, including coverage of what he scathingly dubbed the Scopes "Monkey Trial." This first volume covers the years 1880-92, from the author's birth to age 12, ending with the death of his paternal grandfather. It was followed by "Newspaper Days, 1899-1906" (1941) and "Heathen Days, 1890-1936" (1943)..