THE STANDARD COCKTAIL GUIDE : A MANUAL OF MIXED DRINKS WRITTEN FOR THE AMERICAN HOST

New York: M. Barrows & Company, Inc, 1944. Stated First Printing. Hardcover. Good Plus / None. STATED FIRST PRINTING. Little book (6 1/4 in. x 4 1/4 in.) pink boards with silver-lettered turquoise binding. Shelfwear to front board, edges and corners nudging, this particular volume shows use, and in its 80-year old dotage, sports a bit of a spine lean. 128 pp. including index. Illustrated with photographs.

A good, solid and affordable working copy of the very first printing of what became an enormously popular primer of mixology, but one which you won't be afraid to actually use, and maybe even sprinkle upon a page, by accident or not, a dash of bitters before the sweetness of a homemade cocktail.

Crosby Gage (1882 - 1949) was a theatrical producer and wine and food editor of Country Life Magazine.
He writes: "...It is my purpose to put together in one small book the standard recipes and formulae for cocktails, punches, fizzes, swizzles and other delectable mixtures that have stood the test of time and taste, both professional and amateur..." The epigraph to this now-classic little cocktail "bible" quotes St. Paul in a letter to Timothy, who advises: "Drink no longer water but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities."

Then: "Drinking is a social custom that has existed since men became social creatures. Properly dealt with it is one of the amenities of life. It begets friendliness, warms the heart and the soul and makes timid tongues like mine own vocative and sometimes even eloquent. It is a rite or ceremony that marks the meetings of men who like each other..."