________________________________________________________________________
Guide to the
The Papers of the Wilton C. Dinges
( H. L. Mencken Collection)
Gettysburg College, Musselman Library
Special Collections & College Archives
Processed by Christine M. Ameduri
May 2000
MS - 001: The Papers of the Wilton C. Dinges Collection
( H. L. Mencken Collection)
Processed by: Christine M. Ameduri
May 2000
Provenance P
Schmucker Memorial Library received the Wilton C. Dinges Collection ( H. L. Mencken
Collection) from Wilton C. Dinges in 1965.
U Biography:
H. L. Mencken was one of the most influential American writers, critics and humorists of
the early 20th century. Called the most powerful private citizen in the United States in
the 1920s by some, the " blond beast of Baltimore" as he was sometimes known by critics
and admirers alike, was a keen observer and critic of those institutions held both sacred
and despised by Americans.
He wrote scathing and frank commentary on everything from religion and democracy to
book censorship and the Ku Klux Klan while an editor, columnist and political
correspondent for the Baltimore Sun from 1919 to 1941, and while co- editor of The
Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness from 1914 to 1923. In 1923, he founded the
American Mercury, a magazine that appealed to the educated readers of the time, but
folded in 1933, due in part to the Depression.
U Scope and Content Notes:
The Wilton C. Dinges Collection is arranged into five Series. I. Biographical Information,
II. Antoinette Feleky, III. Correspondence, IV. Manuscripts & Published Material and V.
Miscellaneous.
The bulk of the collection is correspondence between Mencken and Antoinette Feleky,
wife of Charles Feleky, a close friend of Mencken's. Other items include several typed
manuscripts, bibliographic information compiled from newspaper and magazine articles
about Mencken, family and friends and other miscellaneous.
The library also holds more than 150 volumes of Menckeniana in addition to two
scrapbooks ( indexed) of photostatic copies of editorials and articles by Mencken that
appeared in the Baltimore Evening Sun, from 1920 - 1938.
Box 1:
Series I - Biographical Information
1- 1 Mencken, H. L. - Bibliography
1- 2 Mencken, H. L. - Biography
1- 3 Mencken, H. L. - Correspondence
1- 4 Mencken, H. L. - Criticism
1- 5 Mencken, H. L. - Drama
1- 6 Mencken, H. L. - Education
1- 7 Mencken, H. L. - Haardt, Sara
1- 8 Mencken, H. L. - Home
1- 9 Mencken, H. L. - Mencken, August
1- 10 Mencken, H. L. - Menckeniana
1- 11 Mencken, H. L. - miscellaneous
1- 12 Mencken, H. L. - Monuments
1- 13 Mencken, H. L. - Music
1- 14 Mencken, H. L. - Politics
1- 15 Mencken, H. L. - Scopes Trial
1- 16 Mencken, H. L. - works
1- 17 Miscellaneous news clippings
Series II - Antoinette Feleky
1- 18 Correspondence to H. L. Mencken from Antoinette Feleky, 1931- 1933 & 1935- 1939
1- 19 Correspondence to H. L. Mencken from Antoinette Feleky, 1931- 1933 & 1935- 1939
1- 20 Correspondence to H. L. Mencken from Antoinette Feleky, 1931- 1933 & 1935- 1939
1- 21 Correspondence to H. L. Mencken from Antoinette Feleky, 1931- 1933 & 1935- 1939
1- 22 Correspondence to H. L. Mencken from Antoinette Feleky, 1931- 1933 & 1935- 1939
1- 23 Correspondence to H. L. Mencken from Antoinette Feleky, c. 1931- 1939
1- 24 Correspondence to H. L. Mencken from Antoinette Feleky, c. 1931- 1939
1- 25 Correspondence to H. L. Mencken from Antoinette Feleky, c. 1931- 1939
1- 26 Correspondence from H. L. Mencken to Antoinette Feleky, 1930- 1933, 1935, 1937-
1938
1- 27 Feleky, Antoinette - miscellaneous
1- 28 Funeral eulogy for Charles Feleky, 1930
Series III - Correspondence
1- 29 Mencken, H. L., correspondence, 1921- 1947 w/ gaps
1- 30 Correspondence - Rittenberg and Louis- Madden, 1935 & 1937
Series IV - Manuscripts & Published Material
1- 31 " The Young Writer" by H. L. Mencken - typed manuscript, n. d.
1- 32 Typed editorial for the American Mercury by H. L. Mencken, n. d.
1- 33 The American Credo
Series V - Miscellaneous
1- 34 Mencken, H. L. - program guides/ announcements
1- 35 Mencken, H. L. - pen and ink drawings of
1- 36 Bibliography of works of H. L. Mencken at Gettysburg College compiled by Julia
Walsh, 1976
1- 37 Index to scrapbook of H. L. Mencken editorials, 1920- 1938
1- 38 Dinges, Wilton C. - donor of the H. L. Mencken Collection to Gettysburg College,
1964
The Sun Magazine, August 6, 1967
1- 39 The Ombibulous Mr. Mencken by Bud Johns; read by Betty Adler, former curator of
the H. L. Mencken Collection at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, MD, -- reel to
reel, n. d.
