T. S. Arthur (1809–1885)

This work was well known in its day, and was part of the ammunition for the Temperance Movement. I've guessed at the publication date, since there is none listed, and not even a city listed for the publisher.

However, according to this website (thank you, internets):

http://www.jacketflap.com/david-c-cook-publishing-company-publisher-1461

(David C. Cook Publishing Company)
Cook Communications Ministries traces its history back to 1875, when David C. Cook began printing tracts for use in his Sunday school classes in Chicago. From these simple beginnings, CCM has become one of the leading publishers of Sunday school and Christian materials with offices in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

Originally, I went with the approximate and likely date, considering the illustrations are still woodcuts. It's a fun book, but preachy (and unlikely) in the extreme. I'm not positive I'll keep it, but it certainly gives insight into another place and time.

I found another member here (@octobercountry) with the same publisher, and more information, so I've changed mine to match.

I'll lift a glass of Cabernet in its honor this evening.… (mehr)

Being the quintesessential prohibition novel of the nineteenth-century, which describes the baneful effects wrought on a family's (and a town's) life by indulgence in alcohol, here awkwardly (and less-than-appropriately) shoehorned in with another novel. One certainly doesn't need to be a prohibitionist to appreciate the author's skillful description of the deterioration of the life of a person, a family, or a town over a period of years. I wish somebody would adapt the technique to the decline in a town in our own day eventuating from narcotics, big-box stores, or the offshoring of jobs.… (mehr)