Dialogues on Drink

Dialogues on Drink

Benjamin Ward Richardson was a British physician who advocated total abstinence from alcohol. He was also a prolific writer of biographies, plays, poems, and songs, and he combined his interests in medicine and literature in Dialogues on Drink. Richardson hoped that the format of a fictional dialogue would make “some subjects, which would otherwise be dry and hard to read and digest, more acceptable” to a broader audience. Although the book was intended to be read and not spoken, Richardson believed that an oral genre would more effectively educate and convince his readers. Dialogues on Drink was dedicated to William Collins, the Lord Provost of Glasgow, and his colleagues in the Scottish Temperance League, who had entreated Richardson to write “a plain and familiar Essay on the Temperance question.” This copy belonged to Frances Willard. Her signature can be found on the inside of the front cover.

Benjamin Ward Richardson

Benjamin Ward Richardson, Dialogues on Drink (New York: National Temperance Society and Publication House, 1882).

National Temperance Society and Publication House

1882