Sale 2461 - Autographs, November 7, 2017

258 c   MENCKEN, H.L. Group of 5 Typed Letters Signed, each to “Dear Mr. Jeltrup,” on Nietzsche, slang, tobacco, theWar, and other topics. Each 1 page, oblong 8vo, personal statio- nery; faint scattered staining, folds. Baltimore, 1943-44 [700/1,000] 16 September 1943: “. . . I am convinced that Nietzsche must be in Hell.There never lived a more disturbing author. He is always upsetting the ideas of his readers, and starting them off on new tracks. I put in six months of a gloomyWinter translating the ‘Antichrist,’ and came out ready to burn down all the Methodist churches in Baltimore. I have since resolved to let them stand . . . . “I am now engaged upon a sort of supplement to ‘The American Language’. . . . It contains some really swell stuff.” 3 February 1944:“. . .You are probably right about the resistance to true slang.The lively new words that actually get into reputable usage are seldom properly describable as slang. . . .” 8 June 1944:“. . . I assume when the war is over, if it ever is, that no less than 400,000 soldiers will show up in Baltimore to accept my offer. . . . [A]t my age it would be impossible for me to drink with all of them, so I am organizing a hospitality committee . . . .” 260