H. L. Mencken

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H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880 - 1956) was a twentieth century journalist and social critic, a cynic and a freethinker. He was an outspoken defender of freedom of conscience and civil rights, an opponent of persecution and injustice, and of the puritanism and self-righteousness that masks the oppressive impulse. As a nationally syndicated columnists and author of numerous books he played an important role in ending America's preoccupation with fundamentalist Christianity, and opened the way for a secularist revival.