H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), Baltimore journalist, critic, and essayist, began his career on local newspapers in 1899, becoming a reporter for the Baltimore Morning Herald, and later joined the staff of the Baltimore Sun, for which he worked throughout most of his life. He became literary critic of the Smart Set in 1908, and was coeditor of this lively periodical with George Jean Nathan. Mencken and Nathan also founded the American Mercury in 1924, which Mencken edited until 1933. Mencken is best known for the aggressive iconoclasm of his editorial policies in these magazines, especially during the decade following World War I, when he exhibited a savagely satirical reaction against the political and cultural imperfections of the time.