Debating the Cocktail Canon

[martin]

@Splificator

But then you run into boundary problems: once you’re roping in cultural stuff; convivial literature in general, where do you stop?

There’s no reason we have to stop. But to make things easier, I will simply start a separate list.

The literature and film of drinking culture

While we’ve been chewing on the daunting task of identifying a Cocktail Canon (perhaps more accurately described as a Mixology Canon), we realized that there was a lot of fiction, commentary, and perhaps even some histories (and movies) that are equally or more significant. We’re running a separate list here for the sake of manageability. Please contribute. P.G. Wodehouse, the Jeeves canon; numerous novels and stories (1915-1974) Hewson Peeke, Americana Ebrietatis (1917) Don Marquis, The Old …

@cocktaildoodle

At this point, for the sake of getting it done, I will bow out and leave this to the professionals-- there are plenty of them here much more learned on the subject than I. This task maybe shouldn’t be open to the public at all? I doubt the Vatican would open a public forum for the arduous task of whether or not to add or remove a book to/from the biblical canon of scripture. Like a patron sitting at the bar, I will stay out of the shaking and stirring.

Well… I protest. For one thing, the people who wrote all that cultural material might have been professional writers, but they were rarely barmen. Moreover, while I have spent a lot of time with my nose in recipe books, I am poorly read in this context, otherwise. (It simply happens that what I tend to read for pleasure has seldom intersected with drinking culture.) So, you, @cocktaildoodle, are at least as qualified as I on this matter.