Martyn, Carlos. John B. Gough: The Apostle of Cold Water. New York & London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1893. [12417]
Burgundy publisher's cloth with gilt titles, spine a bit faded, 7 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches. Frontispiece portrait of Gough, 336 pp. with index. Contemporary private bookplate. Good. Hardcover.
One of the American Reformers series, edited by Carlos Martyn.
John Bartholomew Gough (1817-1886), born in England, Gough immigrated to the United States when he was twelve years old. He learned the bookbinder’s trade and later took to the stage. His mother died of a stroke and Gough, despondent, began to drink. He married in 1838. The couple had a daughter but both mother and child died within days of each other. By the age of 25, Gough was unemployed, homeless, and a confirmed drunkard. In 1842 he attended a temperance meeting in Worcester, Massachusetts where he took a pledge to totally abstain from liquor. He began to tell his story to eager audiences and soon embarked on a career of lecturing against the evils of drink. During his career, Gough delivered some 9,600 lectures to more than nine million people in America, Canada, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Gough made three overseas tours and traveled extensively throughout the United States becoming the most sought-after Temperance lecturer in the country. When he died in 1886, the New York Times wrote that he “was probably better known in this country and in Great Britain than any other public speaker.”
