On September 12, 1880, H. L. Mencken was born in Baltimore, Maryland. After graduating from Baltimore Polytechnic, Mencken became a reporter for the Baltimore Morning Herald in 1899 and the Baltimore Sun in 1906 (where he worked at intervals for the rest of his working life). As an editor of "The Smart Set," and founder of "The American Mercury," Mencken became one of America's most influential literary and social critics. In his social criticism, he railed against hypocrisy in organized religion and ridiculed the pretensions of the middle class (which he called the "booboisie"). His greatest contribution to American culture was "The American Language," a celebration of uniquely American expressions. First published in 1919, the book grew with each new edition for the next three decades. Some of Mencken's most famous observations were examples of chiasmus: