Mother of Bourbon

The outrageously inspiring story of the most successful and influential woman distiller of Kentucky Bourbon that nobody’s heard…until now! Introducing Mary Dowling, Mother of Bourbon. “Unsung bourbon distiller—and force of nature—Mary Dowling overcame family tragedy, discrimination, and Prohibition, to achieve extraordinary success. Her story comes to life in this page-turning novel.” —Susan Reigler, author of Kentucky Bourbon: The Essential Guide to the American Spirit Born in 1859 to Irish immigrants who’d escaped the great potato famine, Mary Dowling arrived at the height of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic fervor in America. The hardscrabble life her family led provided the foundation of grit and determination that would serve her well, along with a natural gift for numbers and planning. She married the enterprising John Dowling when she was just fifteen and he was thirty-three. Despite their age gap, John was a kind and adoring husband who recognized Mary’s remarkable skills and made her his partner not just in life but in business. He offered her oversight of their burgeoning bourbon company’s financial books and sought her insight and advice on acquisition and expansion as they steadily grew from distillery investors to sole proprietors of Waterfill and Frazier in Tyrone, Kentucky, just outside Lawrenceburg, in the heart of Bourbon Country. “Mother of Dragons? Give me the Mother of Bourbon! In this historical fiction, Kaveh Zamanian and Eric Goodman break the boundaries of traditional bourbon books, just like the woman it’s based on—Mary Dowling. From love to business, this bourbon soap opera is a must read, will keep you entertained, and make you question everything you thought you knew about America’s Spirit.” —Fred Minnick, author of Bourbon: the Rise, Fall and Rebirth of an American Whiskey, Bourbon Curious, and Whiskey Women: The Untold Story of How Women Saved Bourbon, Scotch and Irish Whiskey Mary’s first trials arrive at the turn of the century in a series of tragedies that leave her widowed and with a business no one wants to support. Steering not only the lives of her eight children, she bucks up against a male-dominated bank and distributor that drop her because women don’t run businesses, to align herself with progressive partners who value the dollar over outdated ideas about gender. She scales to ever higher heights, becoming an influential member of Lawrenceburg society while achieving immense wealth at a time when women still couldn’t vote. When Prohibition arrives with its attendant animosity toward immigrants and Catholics, Mary is forced into semi-retirement—until the federal government comes after her on trumped-up charges of bootlegging. Only then does she bite back, determining that if she is going to be treated like a criminal, she will behave like one—taking her operation to Juarez, Mexico, to begin another iteration of Waterfill and Frazier that would distill and legally distribute bourbon throughout Mexico and, less legally, north into the US. Mother of Bourbon: The Greatest American Whiskey Story Never Told is the never-before-told story of a pioneering and visionary woman who achieved success in a system designed to suppress her, and against a government that strived to repress her. Mary’s courage and determination are the hallmarks that live on today in Mary Dowling Whiskey, as extraordinary and distinctive as the woman whose name it bears.

Eric Goodman is the author of seven previous novels, including Curveball (2024). Educated at Yale and Stanford, Goodman lives in Sonoma County and Mecklenburg, New York. For many years, he directed the creative writing program at Miami University (Ohio). His previous novels have been named Indies Finalist for General Fiction and Silver Book of the Year for Gay/Lesbian Fiction. He likes his whiskey neat. Kaveh Zamanian is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst turned master whiskey maker. He fell in love with a Kentucky girl, moved to Louisville, and decided to take a leap with her down the rabbit hole of Bourbon, following his long-standing passion for fine spirits. He is founder of Rabbit Hole and Mary Dowling Whiskey Companies and serves as the Chief Whiskey Officer for Pernod-Ricard, the second largest spirit company in the world. In recognition of his achievements, in 2022, he was inducted to the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame, cementing his place among industry pioneers and visionaries. He resides with his wife (Kentucky girl) and children in Louisville, Kentucky.