Download or read book Martini, Straight Up written by Lowell Edmunds and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2020-03-24 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1998. From its contested origins in nineteenth-century California; through its popularity among the smart set of the 1930s, world leaders of the 1940s, and the men in the gray flannel suits of the 1950s; to its resurgence among today's retro-hipsters: Lowell Edmunds traces the history and cultural significance of the cocktail H. L. Mencken called "the only American invention as perfect as a sonnet."