Bibliography of vintage cocktail books
Since Richard Cook wrote the first known dedicated book in the English language recording drinks recipes in 1827 there has followed an awful lot of cocktail recipe books, many such titles having numerous editions. Navigating these tomes is essential to understanding the origin and development of the classic cocktails that appear on bar menus around the world to this day.
Fortunately, mainly thanks to the free digital library of the Exposition Universelle des Vins et Spiritueux (E.U.V.S.), a museum in Bendor Island in the south of France, many of these works are now free to read on-line.
You'll find a timeline bibliography of the most important vintage cocktail books on the following pages with links to read many of them online, and even download PDF copies for your reference via E.U.V.S., Archive.org, Cocktail Kingdom's library, Google Books and other resources. We have also included links to purchase reproductions.
