Editing H. L. Mencken (section)

==Personal life==

[[File:Sara Haardt.jpg|thumb|right|[[Sara Haardt]] Mencken]]
On August 27, 1930, Mencken married [[Sara Haardt]], a [[German Americans|German American]] professor of English at [[Goucher College]] in Baltimore and an author eighteen years his junior.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mayfield |first1=Sara |title=The Constant Circle: H. L. Mencken and His Friends |date=1968 |publisher=[[University of Alabama Press]] |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |isbn=9780817350635 |page=168 |url=https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817350635/the-constant-circle/ |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-date=December 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202150844/https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817350635/the-constant-circle/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Haardt had led an unsuccessful effort in [[Alabama]] to ratify the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|19th Amendment]].<ref>{{Citation |title=Sara Haardt |url=http://www.al.com/south/literary3.html |type=short biographical sketch |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070208050109/http://www.al.com/south/literary3.html |publisher=AL |archive-date=February 8, 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Alabama rejected the Nineteenth Amendment on September 22, 1919, though it later ratified it as a symbolic gesture on September 8, 1953.</ref> The two met in 1923, after Mencken delivered a lecture at Goucher; a seven-year courtship ensued. The marriage made national headlines, and many were surprised that Mencken, who once called marriage "the end of hope" and who was well known for mocking relations between the sexes, had gone to the altar. "The [[Holy Spirit]] informed and inspired me," Mencken said. "Like all other infidels, I am superstitious and always follow hunches: this one seemed to be a superb one."<ref>{{Citation |title=Mencken |url=http://www.menckenhouse.org/txt/about/about_hlm.htm |type=bio |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204170504/http://www.menckenhouse.org/txt/about/about_hlm.htm |publisher=Mencken house |archive-date=February 4, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Even more startling, he was marrying an Alabama native, despite his having written scathing essays about the [[American South]]. Haardt was in poor health from [[tuberculosis]] throughout their marriage and died in 1935 of [[meningitis]], leaving Mencken grief-stricken.<ref>{{Citation |title=The Real South: Famous People |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070208050109/http://www.al.com/south/literary3.html |contribution=Literary Figures: Sally Haardt |contribution-url=http://www.al.com/south/literary3.html |publisher=AL |archive-date=February 8, 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref> He had always championed her writing, and after her death, had a collection of her short stories published under the title ''Southern Album''. Haardt's childhood friend, Alabama author [[Sara Mayfield]] wrote extensively about Haardt and Mencken in her 1968 book ''The Constant Circle: H.L. Mencken and His Friends''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mayfield |first1=Sara |title=The Constant Circle: H.L. Mencken and His Friends |date=1968 |publisher=University of Alabama |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |isbn=9780817350635 |url=https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817350635/the-constant-circle/ |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-date=December 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202150844/https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817350635/the-constant-circle/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Last years===
On November 23, 1948, Mencken suffered a stroke, which left him aware and fully conscious but nearly unable to read or write and able to speak only with difficulty. After his stroke, Mencken enjoyed listening to classical music, and after some recovery of his ability to speak, talking with friends, but he sometimes referred to himself in the past tense, as if he were already dead. During the last year of his life, his friend and biographer [[William Manchester]] read to him daily.<ref>{{Citation |last=Filkins |first=Dexter |title=Ailing Churchill Biographer Says He Can't Finish Trilogy |date=August 14, 2001 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/14/arts/14MANC.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307224835/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/14/arts/14MANC.html |archive-date=March 7, 2016 |author-link=Dexter Filkins |url-status=live}}}.</ref>

===Death===
Mencken died in his sleep on January 29, 1956.<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 30, 1956 |title=HL Mencken, 75, Dies in Baltimore |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40F14FF3C58157B93C2AA178AD85F428585F9 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201055700/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40F14FF3C58157B93C2AA178AD85F428585F9 |archive-date=December 1, 2008 |quote=HL Mencken was found dead in bed early today. The 75-year-old author, editor, critic and newspaper man had lived in retirement since suffering a cerebral hemorrhage in 1948}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Hutchison |first=Anne W. |date=1956-01-30 |title=H. L. Mencken, Author, Dies at 75 |pages=1 |work=The Baltimore Sun |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116224231/h-l-mencken-author-dies-at-75/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111093226/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116224231/h-l-mencken-author-dies-at-75/ |archive-date=January 11, 2023}}</ref> He was interred in Baltimore's [[Loudon Park Cemetery]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Baltimore's historic Loudon Park cemetery affected by flooding after recent storms |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-loudon-park-cemetery-20180607-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014144339/https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-loudon-park-cemetery-20180607-story.html |archive-date=October 14, 2019 |website=Baltimore Sun|date=June 8, 2018 }}</ref> A very small, short, and private service was held, in accordance with Mencken's wishes.<ref>"Mencken: The American Iconoclast" By Marion Elizabeth Rodgers. Page 549</ref>

Although it does not appear on his tombstone, Mencken, during his ''Smart Set'' days, wrote a joking epitaph for himself:

{{blockquote|If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.<ref>"Epitaph", ''Smart Set'', December 3, 1921, p. 33.</ref>}}