Marion Bloom was H. L. Mencken

H. L. Mencken

Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a scholar of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the...

's lover for much of the early twentieth century - eventually becoming close enough that they seriously considered marriage. They first met February 1914 when Bloom visited the office of Baltimore Sun. Mencken and Bloom ended their relationship in the early 1920s, though Bloom continued to admire Mencken. Their love letters were published in In Defense of Marion: The Love of Marion Bloom & H.L. Mencken in 1996 (ISBN 0820317675).

Bloom spent six months as a nurse in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 during World War One

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, and returned to America newly converted to Christian Science

Christian Science

Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...

.