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The Seltzer Man - Reprinting a Children's Book by Ken Rush

Created by Brooklyn Seltzer Museum

The Seltzer Man by Ken Rush is a classic children's picture book, beautifully painted in watercolor, that tells the story of the oldest seltzer man in the U.S. Join two sister as they spend a day traveling Brooklyn with Eli Miller as he delivers seltzer.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Surveys sent! Store opened for a limited time.
3 days ago – Thu, Aug 27, 2026 at 05:46:02 AM

We are finally ready to finalize orders! That means backers have been sent the survey link, which is essential for us to close out each order. If you have not seen your email, please let us know.

In addition, for a limited time, all items which received the minimum level of community support are available for pre-purchase in the special Seltzer Man store. Please go here before the end of September to purchase:

  •  Additional copies of Ken Rush's The Seltzer Man (regular, signed, or personalized)
  • Tickets to the book release event at the Museum
  • T-shirts
  • Art prints
  • Jigsaw puzzles
  • Magnets
  • Mugs

VISIT THE STORE HERE BEFORE THE END OF SEPTEMBER.

Thank you all for your patience and support. 

Fully funded!
5 months ago – Wed, Apr 08, 2026 at 05:32:54 AM

You did it! In the last 24 hours, our campaign didn’t just reach its goal—we blew right past it. Thank you so much.

So what happens next?

Our first step is setting up the pledge manager. This is where you’ll finalize your details—confirm shipping (or choose in-person pickup), and, if you’d like, add extras to your order. That includes the T-shirt (which, admittedly, only made a late appearance) and tickets to the launch event at the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum with Ken Rush, where you can have your book signed in-person.

For now, we ask for your patience as we build the Backer Survey carefully—we want to get it right the first time. As soon as it’s ready, we’ll let you know here so you can keep an eye out for it.

Thank you again for helping keep the 2,400-year history of seltzer alive.

We did it! Together.
5 months ago – Mon, Apr 06, 2026 at 08:50:34 PM

When Ken Rush talks about the world of the seltzer man, he often talks about the communities they connected, one household at a time, across generations. Well, it took a community and today we hit our goals and fully-funded the campaign to bring back The Seltzer Man.

We can't thank you enough.

There is still a few hours left to get additional copies of this limited edition reprint, as well as related seltzer merch. 

And soon, when the campaign closes, we'll be back in touch about the next steps. 

Until then, thank you all once again for help to keep the effervescent story of seltzer from going flat. 

3 days left! And... magnets!
5 months ago – Sat, Apr 04, 2026 at 07:59:24 AM

With 3 days left, we’re within reach—just ten more supporters would make the campaign a success.

That would allow us to bring Ken Rush's 1990s picture book back into print for a limited time, sharing the story of Brooklyn seltzer delivery man Eli Miller with new readers.

Here is an excerpt from Eli's New York Time's obituary from 2020:

Long before sparkling water with brand names like Polar, Perrier and La Croix crowded bodega refrigerators and apartment dwellers used household carbonators to bottle bubbling beverages themselves, New Yorkers relied on seltzer men to deliver refreshment in clanking glass bottles.

Eli Miller, one of the last of the old-fashioned seltzer men, covered a route in Brooklyn from 1960 until he retired in 2017. Mr. Miller died on March 12 at his home in Brooklyn. He was 86.

When Mr. Miller started his business, hundreds of seltzer men plied the streets; when he retired, there were only a handful. Through all of the intervening decades, he appeared at his customers’ homes bearing a wooden box of pewter-topped bottles filled with authentic seltzer.

“It’s not the stuff you buy in the plastic bottles in the store, which has about five pounds of pressure,” Mr. Miller said in a video that accompanied an article about him in The New York Times in 2013.

What Mr. Miller brought customers, he said, was triple-filtered New York City water, without salt, sugar or other additives, pressurized to about 60 to 80 pounds per square inch — perfect for enjoying plain or spritzing into an egg cream.

Gregarious, well read and engaging, Mr. Miller was welcomed by his customers as enthusiastically as the seltzer, and he enjoyed close friendships with many of them.

“I’m the product,” Mr. Miller was quoted as saying in Seltzertopia: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary Drink (2018), by Barry Joseph. “It’s not the seltzer. It’s all about Eli.”

Mr. Miller’s longevity in a disappearing business lent him a splash of fame. He was profiled by numerous publications and websites and became the subject of a children’s book, The Seltzer Man (1993), by Ken Rush, a longtime customer.

In addition to the book, we also have a range of add-ons that take Ken Rush's beautiful watercolor art and apply them to other mediums. One are fridge magnets! An excellent way to remind you of the refreshing treats kept chilled inside. Get 1 or get the whole set. Makes a unique gift. 


Please consider forwarding this to your friends.

And thank you for helping to keep the 2,400 year story of seltzer from going flat. 

Only 8 days left. Can you help us Bring Back the Seltzer Man?
5 months ago – Tue, Mar 31, 2026 at 04:09:00 AM

We currently have 8 days left to meet our goals for bringing The Seltzer Man back into publication. But to be honest, we don't know if we can make it. We are nearly at 50% fulfilled, but have yet to get us over the middle hump. We need only one person to do that. Might that person be you?

The Seltzer Man Add-ons Spotlight: T-Shirts

As you know, one of the unique aspects about this campaign is that Ken Rush has provided us the original art to The Seltzer Man so we can make related merchandise to extend his vision and the story of seltzer beyond the bookshelf.

This update will highlight the amazing new t-shirts. Ken created for us line art inspired by his cover which we have transferred to this shirt. We hope you like it! Eli's truck is brimming with seltzer siphons while the truck says "Eli Miller", "Seltzer", "Soda", and "U-Bet syrup". Eli is pointing up, at both his truck and title of the book as if to say, "Well, would you look at all that!"