PORTLAND, Maine — Shonna Milliken Humphrey, the author of the new non-fiction book, “Gin,” wasn’t old enough to drink legally when she was introduced to the spirit in northern Maine. It was the first alcohol she tasted.
“I was barely sixteen and employed at a small-town movie theater,” she writes. “The general manager, may he now rest in peace, ran a homegrown ammunition factory from the office above the ticket booth. He drank gin from waxed-paper Pepsi cups, and he set up a casual shooting range from behind the screen. Before or after our shifts, he sometimes let concession girls fire guns. He sometimes let me drink gin, too.”
Humphrey tells that story on the first page of the book, then proceeds to delve into gin’s place in bars, homes, agriculture, distilling, commerce, the Bible, art, songs, movies and more—in short, gin’s place in history. Along the way the reader will come across all kinds of interesting facts. Example: In the mid-1700s, London had roughly one gin dealer for every 35 residents.
For those who view the entire subject with distaste, perhaps even moral scorn, consider this lesson. During Prohibition it was illegal to manufacture and sell alcoholic beverages. So did gin and the woes it caused disappear? Hardly. As Humphrey notes, “the American taste and market for gin did not decrease. Its acquisition was just pushed underground.”