We know exceedingly little of the genesis and progress of Esmond. "It did not seem to be a part of our lives as Pendennis was," says Lady Ritchie, though she wrote part of it to dictation. She "only heard Esmond spoken of very rarely". Perhaps its state was not the less gracious. The Milton girls found Paradise Lost a very considerable part of their lives—and were not the happier. But its parallels are respectable. The greatest things have a way of coming "all so still" into the world. We wrangle—that is, those of us who are not content simply not to know—about the composition of Homer, the purpose of the Divina Commedia, the probable plan of the Canterbury Tales, the Ur-Hamlet. Nobody put preliminary advertisements in the papers, you see, about these things: there was a discreditable neglect of the first requirements of the public. So it is with Esmond. There is, I thought, a reference to it in the Brookfield letters; but in several searches I cannot find it. To his mother he speaks of the book as "grand and melancholy", and to Lady Stanley as of "cut-throat melancholy". It is said to have been sold for a thousand pounds—the same sum that Master Shallow lent Falstaff on probably inferior security. Those who knew thought well of it—which is not wholly surprising.

Vols. for 1898-1968 include a directory of publishers.

A complete reproduction of the Vintage Cocktail Book "The Ideal Bartender" originally published in 1917. Tom Bullock became to be a well-recognized bartender of the time at St. Louis Country Club, where he served for government officials and other elite members. G.H. Walker, grandfather of George W. Bush was one of the big fans of Bullock's cocktails and wrote the indroduction. After publishing this cocktail book, Prohibition made Bullock's profession illegal, yet bartending culture was stronger than ever, bartenders were well paid and tipped for supplying public a illegal substance of alcohol. Bullock moved frequently and changed professions during the dry period, but kept bartending at St. Louis Country Club where people could still drink. The country club did not keep the records on him working there. Feel free to take a look at our complete Reprint Catalog of Vintage Cocktail Books at www.VintageCocktailBooks.com