Outspoken journalist Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956), the “Bard of Baltimore,” filled the early 20th century with wit and fearless social commentary. Savagely honest, he poked fun at popular beliefs and refused to soften his words when the truth demanded bite.

“For every complex problem,” he wrote, “there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” Mencken thrived on puncturing easy answers, insisting that “Human progress is furthered, not by conformity, but by aberration.”

From his columns in the Baltimore Sun to co-founding and editing The American Mercury, Mencken became one of the nation’s most influential literary voices. He reported brilliantly on the Scopes Monkey Trial, skewered New Deal politics, and produced over 2,000 book reviews along with his monumental work The American Language.

“I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs,” he quipped. “There is in every living creature an obscure but powerful impulse to active functioning. Life demands to be lived.”

Quick to challenge illusions, Mencken admitted, “It is hard to believe a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.” Yet beneath the cynicism was humor: “Conscience,” he observed, “the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.”

For his epitaph, he asked simply: “If, after I depart this vale, you remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.” A final jest that carries his enduring lesson... laugh, question, and live truthfully, even when it stings.