When the Brewer Had the Stranglehold First Edition - Ernest Gordon - Bauman Rare Books

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When the Brewer Had the Stranglehold

Ernest GORDON

Item#: 102520 We're sorry, this item has been sold

When the Brewer Had the Stranglehold

"THE CURSE OF LIQUOR": FIRST EDITION OF GORDON'S WHEN THE BREWER HAD THE STRANGLEHOLD, 1930

GORDON, Ernest. When the Brewer Had the Stranglehold. New York: Alcohol Information Committee, 1930. Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition of Gordon's influential 1930 attack on attempts to repeal the 18th Amendment and end Prohibition, in very scarce dust jacket.

"Anti-Prohibition sentiments were on the rise when Ernest Gordon wrote When the Brewer had the Stranglehold in 1930. Published just three years before Congress would ratify the amendment ending National Prohibition, this book seeks to rally Prohibition supporters with reminders of the times prior to the passage of the 18th Amendment" (Hagley Museum). Drawing on testimony in the 1930 Senate Judiciary Hearing on "Lobby Investigation" and the 1919 Senate "Overman Report, Gordon attacks groups such as the German-American Alliance, the U.S. Brewers' Association, Teamsters and the AFL, and the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, claiming these groups and brewers carried out "a vast underground legal trade" to control the press, government and the judiciary, and conduct widespread election fraud (96). A decade later he further blamed Wall Street and the liquor industry in The Wrecking of the 18th Amendment (1943). Gordon, whose father founded the Gordon Theological School of Boston, also authored a number of religious books. Library of Congress I:11540.

Book fine; light edge-wear and soiling, small closed tears to spine head of scarce near-fine dust jacket.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
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Boards Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book.
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Calf Binding material made from cowhide—versatile, durable, usually tan or brown in color, of smooth texture with no or little apparent grain. Readily marbled (“tree calf”), mottled, diced, colored, polished, tooled in gilt or blind, even scented (known as “russia”). Reverse calf, with a distinctive suede-like texture, is occasionally used.
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