johnson rare books & archives, ABAA (3 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition. Inscribed by Thomas Pinney on the title page. "Americans learned how to make wine successfully about two hundred years ago, after failing for more than two hundred years. Thomas Pinney takes an engaging approach to the history of American wine by telling its story through the lives of 13 people who played significant roles in building an industry that now extends to every state. While some names - such as Mondavi and Gallo - will be familiar, others are less well known. These include the wealthy Nicholas Longworth, who produced the first popular American wine; the German immigrant George Husmann, who championed the native Norton grape in Missouri and supplied rootstock to save French vineyards from phylloxera; Frank Schoonmaker, who championed the varietal concept over wines with misleading names; and Maynard Amerine, who helped make UC Davis a world-class winemaking school." Octavo: xviii, 318 p. with 36 illustrations. Original blue paper-covered boards, with gilt titles. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # 75709

Hardcover. Condition: Near fine. First Edition. First edition, first printing. Slim octavo: 80 p. Original cream cloth binding, with silver stamping. This example would be near fine but for small remnants of the glassine jacket which have adhered in places. Accompanied by the Tin House Books reissue (2013), which features a new introduction by Amy Stewart. A cocktail book published during Prohibition with hors d'oeuvres and mixed drink recipes, mostly dreadful, yet such was the state of entertaining "for the American People in the twelfth year of Volstead, 1930." The Volstead Act prohibited offering instructions on how to make alcohol (it was also a crime to tell someone where alcohol could be found) and the few publishers willing to skirt the law and issue cocktail books often tried to pretend the books weren't actually cocktail books. In this case, Elliott and Stong call for non-alcoholic gin and Scotch in their drinks. Under the heading Household Hints (page 68), they supply a recipe for bathtub gin, or how to flavor pure alcohol to taste something like gin (censored in later printings). Real spirits were hard to come by and so most of the recipes are designed to hide the poor quality booze with juice and other mixers. As a cocktail book - that is, a book with recipes one might actually want to drink - Shake 'em Up is a disaster. But it is arguably the most honest account of typical American drinking habits during the later years of Prohibition. The Savoy Cocktail Book from the American Bar in London came out later the same year. In a widely circulated review of the Savoy, Gerald McClean joked about the lack of American liquor options: "The home wrecker calls for gin, vermouth, Kummel, Charbreaux, and pineapple syrup. Now, we ask you, where in this land of the free is one going to find pineapple syrup?" Shake 'em Up is one of few cocktail books of the time written by a woman. It is also the first book by Phil Stong, who is best remembered for his novel State Fair (1932) and its four film adaptations, including the Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musical.

Seller Inventory # 74655

Hardcover. Condition: Very good. First Edition. The first edition of this important early cocktail book, with dozens of recipes for previously unrecorded drinks, among them the Old-Fashioned, the Widow's Kiss, and Kappeler's own invention: the Hot Locomotive. "Kappeler was for a long time at the head of the drink laboratory connected with the Holland House, which has a reputation for the excellence of its damp delights" (Centralia Enterprise and Tribune), referring to the Holland House Hotel in Manhattan. Octavo: 120 p. with [10] p. advertisements. Original green cloth binding, with gilt titles and decorative burgundy and yellow stamping. Mild wear to the corners and tips; otherwise very good.

Seller Inventory # 74022