Blood And Whiskey: The Life And Times Of Jack Daniel

The Real Jack Daniel, Straight Up

You know the brand, now meet the man. He was dapper and diminutive, with the soft, amiable drawl of the quintessential Southern gentleman. Upon first meeting the mature and successful Jack Daniel, few would have guessed that this elegant, mild-mannered aristocrat had clawed his way up from stark poverty, toiled for countless hours, risked his life many times, and overcome obstacles that crushed seemingly tougher men to achieve his success.

Blood &Whiskey tells the rousing and inspiring tale of this legendary distiller's rise to fame and fortune. Reaching deep into the rich history of Lynchburg, Tennessee, author Peter Krass paints a compelling portrait of the post--Civil War South and reveals how an impoverished orphan, taken in by neighbors, discovered his calling at an early age and went on to create one of the most powerful and recognized brands in the world.

Critical Praise for Peter Krass's Carnegie

"Seizing the mantle that J. F. Wall has held since 1970 as Andrew Carnegie's definitive biographer, Peter Krass has written a superb new account of the legendary industrialist and philanthropist's remarkable life . . . timely, balanced, revealing."
-Barron's

"An objective and readable portrait of a fascinating, conflicted man."
-Dallas Morning News

The first-ever biography of the man who created America's most famous whiskey
Born in Lynchburg, Tennessee, in 1850, Jack Daniel became a legendary moonshiner at age 15 before launching a legitimate distillery ten years later. By the time he died in 1911, he was an American legend-and his Old No. 7 Tennessee sipping whiskey was an international sensation, the winner of gold medals at the St. Louis World's Fair and the Liege International Exposition in Belgium. Blood and Whiskey captures Daniel's indomitable rise in the rough-edged world of the nineteenth-century whiskey trade-and shows how his commitment to quality (his whiskey was always charcoal-filtered) and his flair for marketing and packaging (he launched his distinctive square bottle in 189-5) helped create one of America's most venerable and recognizable brands.
Peter Krass (Hanover, NH) is the author of Carnegie (0-471-46883-5), cited by Barron's as the "definitive" biography and selected by Library Journal as one of the best biography/business books of 2002.