It is my pleasure to announce that a contract is impending with Bloomsbury Academic Inc. to write a book bearing the working title of A Craft Brewed to Perfection: A Cultural History of Beer.
Writing will begin immediately, with my deadline coming in 18 months. The book is slated to be an overview of beer as an artistic, scientific, geographical and cultural marker in society; some new, some old, some borrowed, some blue; and in short, indicative of the directions I’ve been headed in life since that first clerking gig at Scoreboard Liquors in 1982.
The book’s outline already is underway, and I’ll provide updates as work progresses.
Profuse thanks to my friend and former IU Southeast history professor Frank Thackeray for his encouragement of this project, and priceless accompanying words of recommendation. Without Frank I’d be nowhere, both as pertains to the forthcoming book itself and my knowledge of the world at large. I’m forever grateful that he saw something in me 45 years ago, and never hesitated to encourage it. At times, I even paid attention.
And bountiful and enormous bundles of love, kisses and esteem to Diana, who is my rock. None of this is possible without her, and I promise to continue my duties as house husband amid the forthcoming writing endeavor as she continues her career as a social worker assisting veterans for the VA. What Diana does is critically important to all of us, something worth remembering at this muddled juncture in the nation’s history.
Also, as an aside for those of you who recall the “One Night with the Publican” beer tastings I formerly held during my tenure at New Albanian Brewing Company (it has been ten years since my departure, by the way), kindly note that I’ve been chatting with owner Greg Brown at Harbor & Hops (3010 Gottbrath Pkwy., Jeffersonville), who had the idea of launching similar tastings on a regular basis at his establishment in 2025.
Greg’s proposal is coincidental to the book. However, in the context of the book there is obvious merit to the notion of a return to speaking before live audiences, as I miss the give and take of beer chat since being numbly ousted at Pints&union in 2023.
Beer tastings like these are the best feedback, revealing what the participants know about beer, and how best to assist them in reaching a greater understanding of the major themes. I almost always came away from a tasting having learned something from the folks I was teaching, and hope for similar results when the Harbor & Hops sessions get under way.
“One Night with the Publican” beer tastings to be revived at Harbor & Hops in 2025
There are no poker faces in beer.
That’s because I’m quite excited about both of these developments, and of course my daily digital and quarterly print tasks at Food & Dining Magazine will continue, as will the “40 Years in Beer” narrative at my website. Sincere thanks to my readers, without whom I’d likely be greeting customers at Wal-Mart.
Now kindly indulge this postscript.
One of my oldest friends on this planet is Bob Gunn, with whom I grew up in the tiny town of Georgetown, Indiana, playing sports and…reading books?
We attended school together all the way through university, worked and traveled together, and enjoyed an occasional adult libation. We’ve also shared an affinity for writing.
During the 1980s Bob and I hatched various schemes to become writers just like our heroes, including at various times figures like Hemingway and Mencken, and we’ve both been plugging away at making good on these vows ever since in our respective spheres of competence.
I’m more the expository writer, essayist and polemicist, while Bob has been honing his fiction for decades, including published short stories and novels.
Lately Bob has completed two novels, The Devil’s Music and Ian Wallace: A Novel, which you can learn more about here: Robert Gunn Novels. It gratifies me to think that after all these years, as we arrive at retirement age, Bob and I have returned full circle to making good on some of our youthful ambitions.
It seems like kismet to me. Best wishes to Bob over on his side of the aisle. Perhaps a dual AARP book fair is on the horizon.
