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So, we limit our disagreement to whether Mencken "worshipped" Nietzsche or not. I think that's the sort of thing reasonable men can differ about, but I'd be curious what in Mencken's writings leads you to that conclusion. I collect Mencken and have read most of his stuff that was published in book form, but I just don't get Nietzsche-worship out of M's corpus.

As to Nietzsche, which German edition do you favor? When I was a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, we had one of the very few remaining copies of the complete Musarion Ausgabe of 1922 -- the one Kaufman thinks is the best text. I had a great time going through it, especially since many of the pages were uncut when I first saw it. The head librarian even bought me a paper knife!

Sadly, I can't read/speak German. It's really a shame. I've heard that reading Nietzche in German is a unparalleled pleasure, plus I think it would have been very helpful to my education.

BTW, I intend "worship" to signify only that Mencken held Nietzche in a very high degree of esteem. I don't mean to say that Mencken made nightly offerinds of obeisance to little Nietzche idols. :-)

I'll have to get back with you on what portions of Mencken's writings gave me this impression. Unfortunately, I don't keep my library in my office. Moreover, I'll allow for the very real possibility that I'm wandering outside of my areas of expertise and that I may be falling victim to a faulty memory on this count!