Rare Books

"Savoy Cocktails: The Present From The Past" 1996 (SOLD)

[287] pp.

The Savoy Hotel Limited

1996

7.75" x 5.25"

A new edition of the Savoy Hotel's book of classic cocktail recipes "With eight new cocktails, this special edition celebrates and commemorates the restoration of the spirit and style of the Savoy Group." The original Savoy Cocktail Book, a collection of cocktail recipes has been called "the coolest book in the world." This first edition published in London is quite scarce. There have been 27 editions published between 1930 and 2018 in English and other languages. "A fascinating record of the cocktails that set London alight in the 1930s - and which are just as popular today."

Born in Stroud, Gloucestershire, Craddock moved to the United States in 1897 where he worked at Cleveland's Hollenden Hotel and New York's Knickerbocker Hotel and Hoffman House, becoming a United States citizen. He left America during Prohibition and sailed to Liverpool with his wife and daughter before joining the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel, London, in 1920. Craddock s The Savoy Cocktail Book, a collection of 750 cocktails, was first published in 1930 and is still in print today. He is sometimes credited with creating a number of classic cocktails, including the famous Corpse Reviver #2 and White Lady. While at the Savoy, Craddock co-founded the United Kingdom Bartenders' Guild in 1934. In 1938, he moved to the Dorchester Hotel and then the Browns Hotel, retiring in 1947. He died in 1963 and was buried in a pauper's grave.