curse of criticism in America is the infernal babbling of third-rate college professor... [the Book of Prefaces] shook the professors as they had never been shaken before." Sources Bode, Carl Mencken. Southern Illinois University Press, London, 1969. Hobson, Fred Mencken. Random House, New York, 1994. Manchester, William Disturber of the Peace. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1986. External links 1917 non-fiction books Alfred A. Knopf books Books by H. L. Mencken Essay collections Books of literary criticism Puritanism in the United States