Johns Hopkins University Acquires Large Mencken Collection

By: Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has received a large gift from the estate of an Ohio man who had a fondness for legendary journalist H.L. Mencken.

Accountant George Thompson from Cadiz (KA'-diz) in eastern Ohio left nearly 6,000 books, photographs and letters by and about Mencken, who was known as the Sage of Baltimore. The reporter and columnist for The (Baltimore) Sun was a prominent literary and social critic in the first half of the 20th century

One Mencken scholar says Thompson's collection is believed to be the largest of its kind in private hands. Johns Hopkins says it will more than double the school's Mencken collection.

Cadiz is 107 miles east of Columbus.