May 04, 2017 - Sale 2446

Sale 2446 - Lot 386

Price Realized: $ 562
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 200 - $ 300
ASKING WHETHER WOODWARD HAS "DISCLAIMED THE PATERNITY OF 'DEBUNK'" MENCKEN, H.L. Typed Letter Signed, "HLMencken," to biographer William E. Woodward ("Dear Mr. Woodward"), requesting information about the first usage of the word "debunk." 1 page, oblong 8vo, personal stationery; vertical folds. (MRS) Baltimore, 3 August 1945
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"In the first Supplement to 'The American Language,' now about to be thrown to a candid world, I say that you have disclaimed the paternity of debunk. This statement was based on a record that now seems to be lost in my interminable notes. Meanwhile, Dr. Max Herzberg sends me an interview with you, printed in Word Study for last December, in which you admit coyly that you really coined the verb. What is the precise facts? Soon or late I'll be revising my Supplement . . . . In all such high matters we owe a duty to posterity.
"I trust that you have managed to get right with God. At our age it begins to be hazardous to take chances. I have given up all of my vices, save alcoholism, atheism and tobacco chewing."