"I note what you say about your aspiration to edit a magazine. I am sending you by this mail a six-chambered revolver. Load it and fire every one into your head. You will thank me after you get to Hell..." — H. L. Mencken in a letter to author William Saroyan, quoted in Terry Teachout's 2002 Mencken biography, "The Skeptic."
(On the other hand, H. Allen Smith writes in "Low Man Rides Again" [1973] that Mencken once told him his magazine editing days were "probably the most interesting period of his life." Incidentally, and way off topic, I know, here's Smith's chili recipe.)
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