{{short description|American attorney and cocktail author}} {{use mdy dates|date=June 2022}} {{use American English|date=June 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = David A. Embury | birth_name = David Augustus Embury | birth_date = November 3, 1886 | birth_place = Pine Woods, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1960|7|6|1886|11|3}} | death_place = New Rochelle, New York, U.S. | education = Cornell University, 1908<br>Columbia Law School, 1916 | occupation = {{hlist|Tax attorney|author|mixologist}} | notable_works = The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948) }}
'''David Augustus Embury''' (November 3, 1886 – July 6, 1960)<ref name="acacia">{{Cite book|last=Fraternity|first=Acacia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dXTorvYplfsC&q=david+a+embury+pine+woods&pg=PA88|title=The Acacia Journal|date=1921|pages=88|language=en}}</ref> was an American tax attorney, mixologist and author of ''The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks'' (1948), an encyclopedia of the 20th century cocktail.<ref>{{cite web | last=Fleming | first=Amy | title=The science of mixing mind-blowing cocktails | website=The Guardian | date=19 August 2014 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/aug/19/science-mixing-mind-blowing-cocktails-mixologists | access-date=24 January 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=The Bigot Who Wrote a Cocktail Bible | website=The Daily Beast | date=3 August 2017 | url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-bigot-who-wrote-a-cocktail-bible | access-date=24 January 2020}}</ref>
== Life and career == David Augustus Embury was born in Pine Woods, New York on November 3, 1886.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fifield|first=James Clark|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bgw8AQAAIAAJ&q=david+a+embury+pine+woods|title=The American Bar|date=1957|publisher=J.C. Fifield Company|pages=919|language=en}}</ref> Embury graduated from Cornell University in 1908 and taught high school for five years. He enrolled in Columbia Law School in 1912, graduating in 1916. He enlisted in the photographic branch of the United States Army Air Service in 1917, attaining the rank of sergeant first class before being demoted to private, and later commissioned as a second lieutenant.<ref name="acacia" />
He was a senior tax partner with the Manhattan law firm of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Donohue|first=Kathleen G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jeYwp2tWOdUC&q=david+a+embury+tax+attorney&pg=PA220|title=Liberty and Justice for All?: Rethinking Politics in Cold War America|date=2012|publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press|isbn=978-1-55849-913-3|pages=220|language=en}}</ref> He became a member of the Acacia fraternity at Columbia Law School on January 17, 1914. He was also a member of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity. He was the first Acacian to become chairman of the North American Interfraternity Conference. He served as chairman of the National Interfraternity Conference from November 29, 1946, to November 28, 1947. During this time he vocally opposed desegregation, believing it to be the work of communists.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Curtis|first=Wayne|date=2017-08-03|title=The Bigot Who Wrote a Cocktail Bible|language=en|work=The Daily Beast|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-bigot-who-wrote-a-cocktail-bible|access-date=2020-11-15}}</ref>
==''The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks''== {{main|The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks}}
Embury decided to pursue his love of bartending in the late 1940s, authoring the book ''The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks'' in 1948.<ref>{{Cite web|title=David Embury and the Fine Art of Mixing Drinks|url=https://www.shakestir.com/features/id/562/david-embury-and-the-fine-art-of-mixing-drinks|access-date=2020-11-15|website=www.shakestir.com}}</ref> The book is noteworthy for its highly opinionated, witty and conversational tone, as well as its categorization of cocktails and its categorization of ingredients. It also contains sections on glassware, bar equipment, a discussion of several different types of bitters, and much other minutiae. He includes in the book a recipe for a cocktail called an "Acacia", referencing the Acacia fraternity.
Embury had "never been engaged in any of the manifold branches of the liquor business" and was experienced "entirely as a consumer and as a shaker-upper of drinks for the delectation of my guests".<ref>{{cite book |last=Embury |first=David |author-link=David A. Embury |others= illustrated by Nathan Gluck |title=The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks |orig-year=1948 |edition=New rev. |year=1958 |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, N.Y |id= {{LCC| TX951 .E55 1958}} |pages=9–10}}</ref>
==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Embury, David A.}} Category:1886 births Category:1960 deaths Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:American food writers Category:Cornell University alumni Category:Lawyers from New Rochelle, New York Category:American cookbook writers Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:Columbia Law School alumni Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century food writers