THE GENTLEMANS COMPANION

The Exotic Drinking Book is the summation of Baker s drinking experiences abroad. Baker accents his tales of high adventure with recipes for cocktails and other alcoholic beverages that were considered unusual specimens in the 1920s and 30s. Baker, a captivating storyteller, wrote about food and drink for a number of well-known magazines. In this travelogue he relates how notorious figures, including Hemmingway and Faulkner, numbered among his drinking companions. At once a drinking guidebook and haughty memoir, The Gentleman s Companion, initially published in 1939, provides a one-of-a-kind glimpse into the bombastic and glamorous world of travel in the mid-twentieth century.