Pistols for two

In Short

This curious volume serves as an experimental biography of American critics H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan. Abandoning the "wax dummy" approach of standard life-writing, the text instead provides an exhaustive, cataloged inventory of the men’s habits, medical histories, aesthetic tastes, and daily routines. By focusing on the "flashing points" of character—from the specific brands of tooth powder they use to their complex views on literature—the book aims to reveal the true, messy, and inscrutable nature of its subjects, ultimately functioning as a stylistic manifesto on how to truly know a person.

The Story

The narrative begins with a philosophical challenge to the art of biography. The author argues that because people are fundamentally complex and mysterious, traditional attempts to present a "complete" or "symmetrical" image of a person are doomed to create only lifeless, artificial caricatures. Instead, the author proposes that we truly understand our peers through "bold and scattered inferences"—not through life stories, but through the minute, accidental details of daily existence.

Having established this thesis, the author pivots to his subjects: George Jean Nathan and H. L. Mencken, both influential editors and critics of their time. The remainder of the book is a sprawling, categorized collection of facts, eccentricities, and biographical data designed to let the reader construct their own "effigy" of these two men.

The section on Nathan portrays him as a fastidious, hypochondriac aesthete. We learn of his penchant for overcoats, his disdain for popular theater, his meticulous grooming habits, and his preference for a secluded, almost velvet-lined workspace. His life is defined by a series of precise, often contradictory preferences: he is a man who knows the exact temperature of his bath, yet was wounded in a duel in Italy; he holds the drama in high regard while simultaneously viewing the theater as a joke.

The section on Mencken presents a different, yet equally idiosyncratic figure. Where Nathan is the dandy, Mencken is the boisterous, bow-legged, and intellectually voracious journalist. The author details Mencken’s background in the family tobacco business, his transition into journalism, his deep-seated detestation of "Puritanism," and his peculiar list of literary and culinary abominations. We see him as a man who values rigorous punctuality and professional independence above all else, maintaining a life of deliberate, solitary routine in Baltimore while simultaneously engaging in a high-stakes, collaborative editing partnership with Nathan.

The final act of the book describes the mechanics of their partnership at The Smart Set magazine. The author reveals how these two men, despite their distinct temperaments, operate with absolute equality, refusing to engage with "literary cliques" or the social pressures of the New York publishing world. The book concludes with the image of two men who have successfully insulated themselves from the common expectations of their profession, living by their own code of skeptical detachment, and having no interest in the validation of others.

How It Unfolds

The biographical manifesto The author rejects the traditional, cohesive portrait in favor of a fragmented approach. He posits that we understand others best through the seemingly insignificant details of their daily behavior rather than grand narratives.

The anatomy of Nathan The text pivots to a granular, list-based profile of George Jean Nathan. It catalogs his specific tastes in clothes, his health anxieties, and his deep-seated prejudices against everyone from actors to clergymen.

The anatomy of Mencken The text offers a corresponding, exhaustive profile of H. L. Mencken. It tracks his physical habits, his intellectual background, his daily writing routine, and his deeply held, often contrarian, political and social beliefs.

The mechanics of the partnership The narrative concludes by detailing the professional life of the duo. It explains how these two men maintain their editorial independence and their shared, unyielding commitment to their own standards of work and social conduct.

The People

George Jean Nathan is portrayed as a man of refined, often rigid tastes who seeks to insulate himself from the world’s mediocrity. His primary conflict is not with an external villain, but with the pervasive banality of the American theater and the intrusions of social convention. He ends as he began: a dedicated, skeptical observer who prefers the company of his own specific habits and his small circle of peers over the demands of the public.

H. L. Mencken stands as Nathan’s counterpoint—a man of intellectual vigor who prides himself on his lack of sentimentality and his rejection of moralizing. His obstacle is the "Puritan" spirit he finds everywhere in American life, which he combats with biting criticism and a rigorous adherence to his own personal, non-conformist code. By the end, he remains a defiant individualist, unswayed by the praise or the censure of the literary establishment. Both men remain fixed in their ways, finding satisfaction in their mutual, uncompromising detachment from the "literary lions" of their time.

In Its Own Voice

Biography fails, like psychology, because it so often mistakes complexity for illumination.

The author opens the book by critiquing traditional biographies that attempt to explain their subjects too neatly.

It is by no such process of exhaustion that we get our notions of the people we really know.

The author argues that true understanding comes from fragmented observations rather than a complete, synthetic life story.

He dresses like the late Ward McAllister and wears daily a boutonnière of blue corn flowers.

The author introduces the meticulous, often theatrical, personal style of George Jean Nathan.

What It's Really About

At its core, the book is a treatise on the limits of human knowledge. The author suggests that the "whole" person is an impossible fiction and that the truth of a life is found in the "débris" of everyday existence—the way a person eats, the way they sleep, and the trivial habits they cling to. It is an argument against the pretension of "symmetrical" biography and a defense of the specific, the odd, and the unexplainable. Beneath the lists of overcoats and favorite soups, the book explores the nature of ego and the possibility of maintaining an authentic, independent life in the face of a culture that demands conformity and moral alignment.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate a sharp, skeptical wit will find much to admire here. The writing is precise, economical, and devoid of the sentimental gloss that characterizes much of the biographical writing from the early 20th century. It feels like reading the notes of a very observant, slightly cynical friend who has decided to strip away the public masks of two famous men.

However, contemporary readers should be prepared for the book's period-specific attitudes. The author is deeply invested in the intellectual fashions of 1917, and his dismissive treatment of certain groups—often using the terminology of that era—may feel jarring or limited today. The text also lacks a traditional plot; if you are looking for a story with rising action or a dramatic arc, the list-based, catalog-heavy format may feel repetitive. Yet, for those interested in the history of American letters or the art of the character study, this remains a fascinating, if eccentric, document. It stays with you not because of the "greatness" of its subjects, but because of the boldness of its premise: that the truth of a human soul is hidden in the smallest, most mundane details of their day.