FOUGNER, Gustav Selmer.

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Along the Wine Trail. First edition in book form, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, "To Ben Towsley, a friend of many years standing, G. Selmer Fougner". This was among the first significant post-Prohibition American guides to wines and spirits. Fougner began writing Along the Wine Trail as a daily column for the New York Sun immediately following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. The author felt "that the new generation was entirely unfamiliar with the general subject of wines and spirits was obvious despite the hard lessons of prohibition days. The older generation, on the other hand, had apparently forgotten much of what it had learned in the pre-war era" (preface).His column was issued as in three pamphlets the following year, and published in book form here. It tells "the story of the world's most famous wines, a history of distillation, and a description of all spirituous liquors, where they come from and how they are made; together with four hundred specially tested recipes for cocktails, hot and cold punches and all other types of drinks; also simple rules for amateur wine making and notes on how to install and care for a wine cellar" (introduction).

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