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How to Mix Drinks
by THOMAS Jerry
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
1862. First Edition . THOMAS, Jerry. How to Mix Drinks, Or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States… To Which Is Appended a Manual for the Manufacture of Cordials, Liquors, [and] Fancy Syrups… The Whole Containing Over 600 Valuable Recipes. By Christian Schultz. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, (1862). Octavo, original brown cloth. $9000.First edition, later state, of the first drink manual published in the United States, prepared by the bartender at the Metropolitan Hotel in New York, illustrated with numerous in-text wood-engravings, including a diagram of a still, in the original cloth.Jerry Thomas (to whom the famous Savoy Cocktail Book is dedicated) presents 236 recipes for social drinks ""apart from water and those of the breakfast and tea-table."" ""It struck us that a list of all the social drinks of America would really be one of the curiosities of jovial literature; and that if it was combined with a catalogue of the mixtures common to other nations [463 additional recipes], and made practically useful by the addition of the concise description of the various processes for 'brewing' each, it would be a 'blessing to mankind.'"" Before How to Mix Drinks, knowledge of cocktails and their recipes was largely a matter of oral tradition in the United States; its author is today regarded as ""the father of American mixology."" First edition, later state. The publishers printed and sold approximately 8000 first edition copies, first priced at $1.50, then $2.00, then $2.50. Earlier copies were titled The Bar-Tender's Guide; other copies priced at $2.50 can be found titled How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, as here, and are presumed to have appeared later. (The price of this copy, $2.50, is barely legible in gilt on the spine.) Four leaves of advertisements at rear. Cagle & Stafford 743. Simon 1461. Owner pencil signature.Text a bit toned, perfectly legible. Expert restoration to joints, spine ends and corners. A very good copy, scarce in the original cloth.
Synopsis
Published in New York in 1862, this volume in the American Antiquarian Cookbook Collection was the first cocktail book published in the United States, and it was written by a “celebrity bartender” famous throughout the country. This seminal work is probably the most famous bartender’s guide and cocktail book of all time—nostalgic and delicious homage to a drinking era that is gone but not forgotten. Containing hundreds of drink recipes, the book collected and codified the oral tradition of mixed drinks from the early days of cocktails and included Thomas’s own creations as well. The guide laid down the principles for formulating mixed drinks in all categories, and it includes the first written directions for cocktails such as the Brandy Daisy, Fizz, Flip, Sour, and variations of the first form of mixed drink, Punch. There are also famous recipes like the Eye-Opener, the Locomotive, the Pick-Me-Up, the Corpse-Reviver, Chain-Lightning, and the Blue Blazer (Thomas’s signature drink involving lighting whiskey on fire and passing it back and forth between two glasses creating an arc of flame). This edition of How to Drink was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the Society is a research library documenting the life of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The Society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection includes approximately 1,100 volumes.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Bauman Rare Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 125119
- Title
- How to Mix Drinks
- Author
- THOMAS Jerry
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Date Published
- 1862
Terms of Sale
Bauman Rare Books
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About the Seller
Bauman Rare Books
Biblio member since 2009
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
About Bauman Rare Books
In business since 1973, Bauman Rare Books now has locations in New York, Philadelphia and Las Vegas.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Later State
- used in book collecting to refer to a book from a later run of a first edition, generally distinguished by a change in some part...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Leaves
- Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...
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