# Pistols for two

Author: Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956; Nathan, George Jean, 1882-1958

Genre: Category: Humour

Language: English

License: Public domain

Source: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75507

Amazon editions: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Pistols+for+two+Mencken&tag=cyberlibrar00-20

## Summary

Biography fails, like psychology, because it so often mistakes complexity for illumination. Its aim is to present a complete picture of a man; its effect is usually to make an impenetrable mystery of him. The cause of this, it seems to me, lies in the fact that the biographer always tries to explain him utterly, to account for him in every detail, to give an unbroken coherence to all his acts and ideas. The result is a wax dummy, as smooth as glass but as unalive as a dill pickle.

## Chapters

- [Part 1](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/pistols-for-two-75507/chapters/1/index.md)
- [Part 2](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/pistols-for-two-75507/chapters/2/index.md)
- [Part 3](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/pistols-for-two-75507/chapters/3/index.md)