Fancy a tipple? Then pull up a stool, raise a glass, and dip into this delightful paean to the grand old saloon days of yore. Written by Chicago-based journalist, playwright, and all-round wit George Ade in the waning years of Prohibition, "The Old-Time Saloon" is both a work of propaganda masquerading as "just history" and a hilarious exercise in nostalgia. Featuring original, vintage illustrations along with a new introduction and notes from Bill Savage, Ade's book takes us back to the long-gone men's clubs of earlier days, when beer was a nickel, the pretzels were polished, and the sardines were free.
About the Author
Born and educated in Indiana but a long-time Chicagoan, George Ade (1866-1944) was a prolific journalist, a Broadway playwright, and a humorist whose newspaper columns, "Fables in Slangand Stories of the Streets and of the Town", were syndicated nationally, collected in books, and produced as films, some of which Ade directed.
Reviews
"Undersized but never puny... great for carrying in your pocket or purse, at the ready when you need escape or inspiration... Here's a gem for gentlemen and gentlewomen who enjoy a tipple" – Sarah Murdoch, Toronto Star
"[One of the] 'Books we can't wait to read: The back half of 2016 edition'... In the early twentieth century, Ade was one of the funniest newspapermen in Chicago. In 'The Old-Time Saloon', originally published in the depths of Prohibition, he looks back with great nostalgia on the glory days of the nineteenth-century saloon" – Aimee Levitt and Tal Rosenberg, Chicago Reader
"Ade writes the present little volume as an expert to inform the young of the sin and wickedness they missed by being born too late" – New York Times
"Ade amuses with his dry humor on a wet topic... The book discusses every phase of the saloon and every type of saloon, from the ornate and opulent place, like the Waldorf or the Knickerbocker, to the dive on the corner and the old-fashioned roadhouse" – Brooklyn Daily Eagle
"Much about nineteenth-century saloons may have been sordid and squalid, but Ade knew how to find their charm, even their joy. He's a wonderful reading companion – and I bet he would have been pretty great to drink with, too" – Daniel Okrent, author of "Last Call"
"Ade was an American humorist who wrote literature for daily newspapers, back when such a thing could be imagined. He wrote vividly about the middle of the country when it was up-and-coming, expectedly dowdy and unexpectedly modern – he stands right between Booth Tarkington and Ring Lardner. And Ade did more for capitalization than anybody since Swift... He was poet laureate of the live ones, and a distant ancestor of Rocky and Bullwinkle" – Luc Sante, HiLobrow
