The American Language (Three Book Set) (Volume One, Supplement One, Supplement Two) (With Mencken signature)

H.L. Mencken

Alfred A. Knopf, 1945

[Baltimore Association copy, signed by H.L. Mencken, 1946] Interesting provenance: Supplement 1 has a typed letter on Mencken's letterhead, signed by him to Colonel Greenfield concerning a meeting as Schellhase's restaurant in Baltimore.  The book is signed by Mencken's diner distinguished guests, Colonel Kent Roberts Greenfield, Rea Keast, Bell Wiley.   "Required by K R G, after the memoriable meeting, at Schellhasse's, Baltimore, 12 January 1946, of the author with the undersigned: Rea Keast, Bell Wiley, Kent Roberts Greenfield." 

On Mencken's diner guests: Kent Roberts Greenfield (1893-1967) was professor of history at Johns Hopkins University and chief architect of the official U.S. Army history of World War II. he received a PHD from Hopkins in 1915. He was the Chief Historian of the Dept of the Army and a professor at Hopkins. William Rea Keast (1914-1998) was an American scholar and President of Wayne State University.  Bell Wiley (1906-1980) was a historian and author of the American Civil War.  He was a professor of history at the University of Mississippi (1938-1943), Louisiana State University (1946-1949), and Emory University (1949-1974). 

3 volume set. Hardcovers and dust jackets. Some wear to dj of v.1.   Dust jacket in protective mylar cover. Good bindings and covers. Clean, unmarked pages.  The American Language (v.1) is the 1945 printing, Supplement (Signed by Mencken on letter) V.1 is the 1945 printing, Supplement 2 the first printing. 1948.  These men met Mencken at his famous Saturday Night Club.  

More on Schellhase: "Schellhase's was home to H.L. Mencken's Saturday Night Club.   "In a private dining room at the rear of the restaurant Baltimore's widely known Saturday Night Club found refreshment and good talk after weekly sessions of music," said The Sun. "H. L. Mencken was at the heart of the group of friends who made music for the joy of it and liked to linger at table and perhaps sip a beer or two."  The club's origins dated to 1902, when Mencken gathered several newspaper colleagues who enjoyed either singing or playing." - Fred Rasmussen, THE BALTIMORE SUN, April 6, 1997.