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Publisher: Robert McBride & Co., New York, .
Hard Cover, 188 pages, 5.75 x 8.00.
Item #1342
Here is the American edition of A Tankard of Ale. Published at the dawn of National Prohibition in 1920, this joyous book gathers together a unique and historical collection of about 150 songs and poems devoted to drinking. In the book's introduction, the compiler, Thoedore Maynard, explains his motivations for preserving this assortment of drinking anthems: "With the advent of the social reformer, the very word 'beer' seems to have taken on a sinister sound, and is as much tabooed in polite society as the word 'trousers' was once said to have been. This harmless and refreshing drink has become credited with the most devilish properties and characteristics, so that when it has to be discussed (and Heaven only knows how much the thought of it disturbs the minds of meddlesome philanthropists) it must be referred to under the alias of 'alcohol' or 'the drinking habits of the lower classes.' Officialdom has beer on the brain -- which is quite the wrong place for beer to be. There is little wonder then that conviviality is a lost art and that in consequence the making of drinking songs has suffered a bad decline."
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