National Park Service Histories Articles

H.L. Mencken Reviewed
Two World War I Novels

• The Smart Set, 1922 •

The American curmudgeon H.L. Mencken recognized that “disillusion” was the unifying theme for the 1920s literature that was being written by the men who had returned from the war:

“In Three Soldiers, John Dos Passos exhibited the disillusionment of the soldiers in the field; The Last Mile by Frank Macallister exposes the disillusionment of the soldier come home”.
The reviewer remarked that both authors had been “bamboozled by Woodrow and company”.

Click here to read articles about W.W. I poetry.

WW1 Disillusionment John Dos Passos Three SoldiersWW1 Disillusionment Frank Macallister The Last MileDisillusion in THREE SOLDIERS by John Dos PassosDisillusion in THE LAST MILE by Frank MacallisterDisillusionment as seen in THE LAST MILE by Frank MacallisterDisillusionment as seen in THREE SOLDIERS by John Dos PassosDisillusionment following WW1 THE LAST MILE by Frank MacallisterDisillusionment shattered in THREE SOLDIERS by John Dos PassosDisillusionment of WW1 LiteratureWW1 Disillusionment as fiction subjectWW1 Disillusionment theme H.L. Mencken

Writing

H.L. Mencken Reviewed Two World War I Novels

• The Smart Set, 1922 •

H.L. Mencken Reviewed
Two World War I Novels