Up from Methodism

"In 1926, Herbert Asbury, great-great-nephew of Francis Asbury, the first American Bishop of the Methodist Church, submitted a chapter of his profane work-in-progress, an almost spiteful memoir of his boyhood in Farmington, Missouri to H.L. Mencken's American Mercury magazine. Mencken published "Hatrack," the story of the town prostitute. The Mercury was then banned in Boston at the incitement of the New England Watch and Ward Society as "bad, vile, raw stuff," and Mencken was arrested for selling copies on Boston Common." "In its restrained, but unrelenting attack on religious bigotry, irrationality, and hypocrisy, Up From Methodism retains its transgressive power today. In his mocking humor and plain-spun language, used to evoke a bygone South suffocating in its fear of pleasure and damnation, Asbury reveals his debt to another son of Missouri, Mark Twain."--Jacket.

First sentence: ON MY father's side, according to my family belief, I am related to Cotton Mather; on my mother's side to Roger Williams.

Year

1926

Language

English

Publisher

Thunder's Mouth Press

Editions

1

Pages

224

ISBN

9781560255703

Data source: Wikidata