Excerpt from The Ideal Bartender: "Is it any wonder that mankind stands open-mouthed before the bartender, considering the mysteries and marvels of an art that borders on magic? The recipes found in this book have been composed and collected, tried and tested, in a quarter-century of experience by Tom Bullock of the St. Louis Country Club."
Tom Bullock was the first African-American to compile a cocktail guide, called The Ideal Bartender, published in 1917. This facsimile collection of pre-prohibition cocktails, with a foreword by George H. Walker, great-grandfather to President George W. Bush, has been published by Kalevala Books as part of the Classic Cocktail Guides and Retro Bartender Books series.