Heading: (Cocktails)
Author: Thomas, Jerry
Title: The Bon Vivant's Companion or How to Mix Drinks
Place Published: New York & London
Publisher:Alfred A. Knopf
Date Published: 1928
Description:

Introduction by Herbert Asbury. Illustration from the original wood engravings. Jacket. First Asbury Edition.

Jeremiah (Jerry) P. Thomas (1830-1885) was perhaps the best-known American bartender of the 19th century; because of his pioneering work in popularizing cocktails across the United States, he is considered "the father of American mixology." From the depths of Prohibition Herbert Asbury recalled paradise before the expulsion from the garden, "Briefly, Jerry Thomas was a bartender. But what a bartender! His name should not be mentioned in the same breath with that of the frowsy gorilla who, in these dark days of Prohibition, may be found lounging behind the bar of a dingy basement speakeasy, shloshing luke-warm ginger ale into a dirty glass half-filled with raw alcohol, and then calling the unspeakable concoction a drink. Jerry Thomas had nothing in common with this Volsteadian ape; there is no more a basis for comparison than there is between Michelangelo and Bud Fisher, or Dante and Eddie Guest. For Jerry Thomas was neither frowsy nor a simian; he was an imposing and lordly figure of a man, portly, sleek and jovial, yet possessed of immense dignity..." - Introduction.

Some chips and tears to jacket, tears along joints with panels nearly detached, dampstaining to rear panel affecting cloth beneath; slight lean to spine; mild toning within; very good or better in good or better jacket.