David Augustus Embury (November 3, 1886 – July 6, 1960)[1] was an American tax attorney, mixologist and author of The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948), an encyclopedia of the 20th century cocktail.
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.
[1] He was a senior tax partner with the Manhattan law firm of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle.
[5][6] Embury decided to pursue his love of bartending in the late 1940s, authoring the book The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks in 1948.
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".