The five pre-Prohibition cocktail manuscripts.
This is a reference page. If you have ended up here from a search for any of these five manuscripts, this is a single source you can return to with the dates, the titles, the contents, and the importance of each book. The five together define American bartending from the Civil War through the start of Prohibition. Free PDF inside: The Lost Cocktail Codex, 50 hand-transcribed recipes drawn from these exact volumes, no card.
The five, in chronological publication order: Jerry Thomas (1862), Leo Engel (1878), Harry Johnson (first edition 1882, expanded 1888), William "Cocktail Bill" Boothby (1908), Hugo Ensslin (1916, expanded 1917). The first three established the form. The last two captured it at maturity.
Quick timeline
The five manuscripts in detail
1. Jerry Thomas, How to Mix Drinks (1862)
Why it matters. The first cocktail book published in English. Thomas was a working bartender at the Occidental Hotel (San Francisco) and the Metropolitan Hotel (New York), among others. The book is the single foundational document for the entire American cocktail tradition. Categories Thomas wrote down (punches, juleps, cobblers, smashes, fixes, sours, slings, fizzes, sangarees, toddies, eggnogs, cocktails, crustas) define the form for the rest of the century.
Contents. Organized by drink category rather than spirit. The "cocktail" section is small in 1862 but includes the original definition: spirit + sugar + water + bitters. Includes the Tom and Jerry, the Whiskey Sour, the Mint Julep, the Brandy Crusta (credited to Joseph Santini of New Orleans), and Thomas's signature flaming Blue Blazer.
Where to read it. Public domain. Project Gutenberg has clean text. Internet Archive has scans of multiple editions. Mud Puddle Books published a modern reprint with Dale DeGroff commentary. Deep dive on the 1862 manuscript here.
2. Leo Engel, American & Other Drinks (1878)
Why it matters. The bridge between American cocktail tradition and the British bar trade. Engel ran the Criterion bar in London and published this slim volume to introduce American-style cocktails to a British audience. Without Engel, the historical line from American cocktails to the post-Prohibition London hotel-bar revival (Harry Craddock, the Savoy) is much weaker.
Contents. A tighter selection than Thomas, focused on the drinks Engel actually served at the Criterion. American punches, cobblers, juleps, and the early form of the cocktail. Engel's prose is dry and almost modern in a way that distinguishes him from his American contemporaries.
Where to read it. The rarest of the five. Original copies are in major academic libraries. Google Books has a public-domain scan that drinkers actually use. Cocktail Kingdom has not, as of 2026, published a facsimile, which makes Engel the hardest of the five to obtain in physical form.
3. Harry Johnson, The Bartenders' Manual (1882, expanded 1888)
Why it matters. The most operationally precise of the five. Johnson wrote a bar-management handbook with recipes attached, rather than a recipe book with bar context attached. His 1888 expanded edition contains the first published recipe for the Martini, printed as the "Martine," which uses sweet vermouth, gum syrup, bitters, and Old Tom gin. The drift from Johnson's "Martine" to the modern bone-dry Martini is one of the most-studied evolutions in cocktail history.
Contents. Detailed bar setup and management instruction. Glassware and equipment specifications. Recipes organized by category. Includes the original Manhattan documentation, Old Fashioned variants, and a wide range of fizzes and rickeys.
Where to read it. Public domain. Internet Archive has high-quality scans of the 1888 edition. Cocktail Kingdom has published a facsimile reprint with introductory commentary.
4. William "Cocktail Bill" Boothby, The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them (1908)
Why it matters. The most ambitious of the five in scope, claiming a global perspective. Boothby acted as a clearinghouse for what was being served in the larger American hotel bars at the turn of the century, with contributions from his network of fellow bartenders across the United States, the British Isles, the Caribbean, and continental Europe. The book is the best single source for "what was the working cocktail repertoire in 1908."
Contents. Hundreds of recipes, including regional American specialties not found in Thomas or Johnson. The Saratoga Brace Up. The Tomahawk Cooler. Manhattan variants that diverge from the New York standard. A substantial international section. A revised edition followed in later years; the 1908 first edition is the historically primary one.
Where to read it. Public domain. Cocktail Kingdom has published a facsimile reprint. Anchor Distilling published a beautifully designed contemporary reprint titled Boothby's World Drinks (2008 / 2009) that retains the original recipes with modern editorial framing.
5. Hugo Ensslin, Recipes for Mixed Drinks (1916, expanded 1917)
Why it matters. The last cocktail book published in the United States before Prohibition. The most modern-feeling of the five, with proportions and organization that a 21st-century reader can navigate without translation. Original published source for the Aviation cocktail (with creme de violette), the Tuxedo No. 2, the Income Tax cocktail, and many other drinks the craft revival of the 2000s reconstructed from Ensslin's pages.
Contents. 400 recipes organized by base spirit. Hotel-bar working repertoire of the late pre-Prohibition era. The 1917 edition added recipes that had circulated in the trade between 1916 and 1917 and is the version most cited today.
Where to read it. Public domain. Cocktail Kingdom has published a facsimile reprint that includes both the 1916 and 1917 editions, with introductory commentary from Robert Hess. Internet Archive has high-quality free scans. Deep dive on Ensslin and the original Aviation here.
What is NOT in the five
To clarify common confusions: Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) is not pre-Prohibition. It was published during American Prohibition, by an American bartender working in London, and represents post-American-tradition cocktail writing. The Savoy matters enormously, but it belongs to the next chapter.
The Old Mr. Boston Official Bartender's Guide (1935) is post-Prohibition. The Esquire Drink Book (1956) is post-Prohibition. David Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948) is post-Prohibition. All three are excellent and all three operate on top of the foundation laid by the five.
The "Manuel des Cocktails" of Jerry Thomas's later European travels, often referenced in passing, is not a separate book; it is one of the appendices in the 1876 expanded edition.
How to read the five in order
If you are starting from zero and want to walk the chronological arc of American cocktail writing, the recommended path is:
- Thomas 1862 as the foundation. Read the cocktail-as-form definition, the punches, the categories.
- Engel 1878 as the trans-Atlantic bridge. Skim. The book is short and the value is contextual.
- Johnson 1888 for operational realism and the first Martini.
- Boothby 1908 as the breadth check. The single best one-volume reference for "what was being served in 1908."
- Ensslin 1917 as the closing chapter. Compare proportions to Thomas's 1862; the evolution over 55 years is visible in the math.
Total reading time at modern pace: perhaps 8 to 12 hours across all five if you sample rather than try to make every drink. If you actually try to make 20 drinks across the five, plan a long weekend and stock up.
The American cocktail tradition is held together by five books, three of which were written by men who knew each other personally. The genealogy is short.
The connecting thread
Thomas, Johnson, and Boothby all worked in the same set of hotel bars across San Francisco, New York, and points between, with overlapping years and direct professional contact. Ensslin came after them but worked in the New York Times Square scene that grew out of their tradition. Engel worked in London but corresponded with American bartenders and explicitly framed his book as American-style.
This is a small profession in a small number of cities. The five manuscripts are the published output of a tradition that was, in personal terms, on the order of a few hundred working bartenders. The thinness of the documentary trail is a reason any one of these books matters as much as it does. There were not 50 alternatives; there were five primary sources.
50 cocktails hand-transcribed from all five manuscripts. Every recipe sourced and dated. Including: Thomas's Tom and Jerry, Johnson's "Martine" Martini, Engel's American punches, Boothby's Saratoga Brace Up, Ensslin's original Aviation. Drop your email below.