WM. MIDA'S HAND-BOOK FOR WHOLESALE LIQUOR DEALERS, A FULL AND EXPLICIT GUIDE IN ALL REVENUE MATTERS ALSO, OTHER INFORMATION ESSENTIAL FOR DAILY USE ... de Mida, William - 1884

Chicago: Published by Wm. Mida, 1884. 93pp. plus 26 interleaved pages numbered in roman. Small octavo (19.5 x 13.5 cm). Printed brick- brown wrappers. Illustrations, tables and adverts (one folding). Large colored folding map. Text block uniformly browned. wrappers detached and chipped in the spine area; a delicate, yet remarkable survival. The map, apart from a couple of short breaks at the edges of a couple of folds, is fine. "Second and Enlarged Edition" of this highly significant reference. The large color folding map is a "Map of Kentucky Showing the Several Internal Revenue Collection Districts," dated 1884. It bears Mida's imprint as a "Commission Merchant, Importer's & Distiller[']s Agent." Mida emigrated to the US in 1867 from his native Poland after a career that included gun running and revolutionary acts against the Russians in Poland. In 1873 he established himself as a liquor distributor in Chicago. He foresaw the need for trade publications for the liquor trade, particularly in regard to trade-marks. He published his first Hand-Book in 1883, published a periodical, MIDA's CRITERIA, established an imprint for future publications (Criterion) and published a sequence of volumes illustrating and recording the trademarks of hundreds of distilleries and vineyards. Mida died in 1915, and his enterprises continued until the advent of prohibition under the control of his son, Lee Mida. His publications all tend to scarcity, if not rarity, in institutional collections. OCLC returns no locations for the 1883 first edition of Mida's HAND-BOOK, and only one location for this edition, at UC Davis. William Veach, "William Mida: A Forgotten Hero Of Whiskey," online at bourbonveach[dot]com. OCLC: 456117665.