"DISHONEST GIN SHOULD, OF COURSE, BE COMPLETELY OSTRACIZED FROM POLITE SOCIETY": FIRST EDITION OF BACCHUS BEHAVE!, INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR ALMA WHITAKER

WHITAKER, Alma. Bacchus Behave! The Lost Art of Polite Drinking. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1933. Octavo, original pictorial pink cloth, original dust jacket. $2800.

First edition of the popular Los Angeles Times columnist’s witty guide for returning post-Prohibition Americans "to the path of righteous alcoholic etiquette,” in the original dust jacket, inscribed by the author on the half title: "Sincerely Alma Whitaker."

Whitaker, "a tinseltown society columnist for the Los Angeles Times," offers sparkling post-Prohibition advice to a nation that "wandered far from the path of righteous alcoholic etiquette during the recent graceless era" (Felten, How's Your Drink, 171). Bacchus Behave! steers Americans back to "the lost art of polite drinking" by scorning the home bar—"one of the most deplorable customs that won favor during the Prohibition," "dishonest gin" and other slips into "shockingly bad form." The volume also features recipes for canapés, cocktails and other necessities. On publication, Clark Gable praised Whitaker for providing "many a laugh in the etiquette of a forgotten art." Gabler, 302.

Book in near-fine condition, in an extremely good, price-clipped dust jacket showing light soiling and wear to upper edge, spine ends chipped. An attractive signed copy.