AN ALCOHOLIC to His Sons: AS TOLD To Henry Beetle Hough - First Printing with ODJ

An Alcoholic to His Sons

As Told to Henry Beetle Hough

First Printing · 1954 · Hardcover with Original Dust Jacket

Overview

Offered here is a First Printing (1954) of An Alcoholic to His Sons: As Told to Henry Beetle Hough, complete with its original dust jacket.

Written as a candid confession from a compulsive drinker to his sons, this book is less a sensational “drunkalogue” than a clear-eyed map of how alcoholism unfolds—quietly, rationally, and then all at once. It follows the progression from social drinking to secret drinking, from excuses to lies, and from control to collapse—while keeping the focus on warning signs, attitudes, and the possibility of change.

About the Book

The premise is powerful and simple: a father, looking back with honesty, tries to tell his sons what he wishes he had understood earlier. The result reads like a guided tour through the logic of alcoholism—how an intelligent, capable person can still get pulled down the “inclined plane,” one small justification at a time.

In the foreword, Henry Beetle Hough notes that the central figure remains anonymous so the focus stays on truth rather than identity—and emphasizes that the point is usefulness: patterns, danger signals, false lures, and the real challenges of recovery.

For collectors of early recovery literature, this title sits in that important mid-century space where public conversation about alcoholism was expanding beyond stigma and moralism and into education, realism, and hope.

About Henry Beetle Hough

Henry Beetle Hough was best known as a writer and longtime co-editor of The Vineyard Gazette on Martha’s Vineyard, a local weekly with a national reputation for quality. While many of his earlier books leaned toward country life and landscape, this volume shows him turning with surprising clarity to a far more serious subject—shaping a lived alcoholism narrative into something direct, readable, and instructive.

Edition Details

Title: An Alcoholic to His Sons

Credit: As told to Henry Beetle Hough

Year: 1954

Printing: First Printing

Format: Hardcover

Dust Jacket: Original dust jacket present

Condition

Book: Very good condition with little apparent use. Clean, solid copy. No writing, highlighting, or markings noted.

Dust Jacket: Original jacket present with edge wear and minor tears consistent with age and handling.

Please view all photos carefully for the most accurate representation of condition.