"CORRECT RECIPES… FLAVORED WITH DASHES OF HISTORY MIXED IN A SHAKER OF ANECDOTE AND SERVED WITH A CHASER OF ILLUMINATIVE INFORMATION": 1934 FIRST EDITION, PUBLISHER'S REVIEW COPY
CROCKETT, Albert Stevens. The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book. With Amendments Due to Repeal of the XVIIIth. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1934. Octavo, original gray and orange cloth, uncut. $5500.
First edition of Crockett's post-Prohibition drink manual, review copy with a paper Dodd, Mead & Company "press copy" label dated April 5, 1934 on the back cover and a sample of the silver dust jacket mounted on the front pastedown.
Following the end of "the Period of the Great Drought," Crockett revisited and rewrote Old Waldorf Bar Days, his 1931 history of the legendary hotel bar with accompanying collection of drink recipes. The new post-"Noble Experiment" Preambulary provides a view of Prohibition and its effect on society (and on bartenders), after which comes the "Formulary": "For the convenience of students of the cultural history and mores of the American people, as well as for those who wish to set a goal before starting to mix, the bibulous concoctions long known and served at the Bar of the Old Waldorf have been arranged alphabetically, and in two general classes. The cocktails have been set down in one list and the others, which might be classed as 'beverages,' though that title might be open to dispute, have been termed 'Fancy Potations and Otherwise.'"
Contents clean; light rubbing and spots of soiling to cloth, spine slightly sunned. A very good copy of the scarce first edition.