Times can be tough when you’ve got a cocktail you’ve just got to research, but the library is closed, the internet is daft, and no early to mid-century bartenders happen to be hanging out in your home office. But still, there is some hope.
If you haven’t made use of it yet, Google’s Book service has a decent number of Public Domain titles available for download as PDF files.
Some of the full text titles available are:
Jerry Thomas’ How to Mix Drinks: Or, the Bon-Vivant’s Companion, 1862
William Terrington, Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks, 1869
William Schmidt (The Only William), The Flowing Bowl, 1892
These titles, available in full, are in the Public Domain. The system of which can be pretty convoluted, so that no works past 1923 can be offered, and the author to have been dead for 70 years, though there are exceptions, etc etc. Once offered (finally!) though, public domain titles can be a huge boon for research. Knowledge is power!
Go on and hit up Google’s Book service, and let me know if you find any treasures. My results came from searching “cocktail”, and then sorting through the 600+ titles found in Full Text.
Now I must find a place that’ll print and bind these all for me on the cheap.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Good list! I’d been meaning to search for any more that might be out there. There are also a few more related materials available at Project Gutenberg, though I’m having a hard time finding the list I compiled a while ago.
Thanks! This is a great resource.
This is a FINE resource…and we’re the guys who wrote the book on drinking (literally), The Man Who Scared a Shark to Death and Other True Tales of Drunken Debauchery