neither." Edward A. Martin's book In Defense of Marion calls Bloom and Mencken's relationship "the most important love relationship in H. L. Mencken’s life, one that he tried to obscure and hoped would remain buried within the copious record of his achievements as author and editor" and notes that it "flourished during a period when he wrote frequently about women’s issues." Although little is known about her later life, it seems Bloom authored a number of books, and wrote for American Mercury and The Washington Herald. She returned to the field of nursing again, working for the American Red Cross as assistant chief of the Resources Information unit, and may have served the army again as a nurse during World War II from 1944 until 1947. She worked for the Junior Red Cross, and in 1950 worked for the State Department, retiring ten years later. She died on March 10, 1975. The correspondences between Mencken, Bloom, and her sister Estelle are housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore and the New York Public Library. References 1891 births 1975 deaths American nurses American women nurses American women writers Converts to Christian Science American Christian Scientists 20th-century American women H. L. Mencken