The Spirit World

The other night, I was at a dinner party where there were several of the city’s best bartenders were in attendance. Conversations where going on full steam amongst the various tables, when suddenly I hear my name from the far end of the table.

“If you could have only one cocktail book, what would it be!”, called out a bartender, just barely audible over the rumble of other discussions around out.

“Why, Embury of course!” I replied, with barely a moment’s hesitation.

“See!” said the bartender as he elbowed his pal next to him. “And you don’t even have a copy?”

Embury, David Embury. Need I say author of “The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks?” This fine book was originally published in 1948, and which has ever since been a prized volume of many bartenders across the country, if not the world. By his own admission, Mr. Embury wasn’t a bartender. He was simply somebody with a deep passion for, as well as an opinion about, what it took to make a proper cocktail. Books which attempt to cram within their pages as many different cocktail recipes as possible are almost a dime a dozen, and can often be seen behind many bars. As a simple reference, I suppose they have their place, but Mr. Embury’s book isn’t a simple reference book. While it does contain a fair number of cocktail recipes, this is a book that is intended to be read.  Its recipes, and more importantly the information and opinions around those recipes, are intended to be educational, and that is what sets this book apart from almost any other.

The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, has unfortunately been out of print for many years, but thanks to online auction sites as well as online used book shops, copies of it can usually be found. Ten or so years ago, when I first became aware of this book, it was relatively easy to pick copies up for around $40. That however was just at the beginning of the modern resurgence of the cocktail, and David Embury’s book become the “required reading” for all who wished to participate. Such popularity eventually drove the prices fairly high, there is currently a copy on eBay selling for nearly $400, that that’s for a paperback version!

A reprint was clearly in need, the problem was that not only was the book new enough as to still be covered under copyright, but nobody seemed to know who actually held the copyright to the book now that Mr. Embury himself had passed away. Enter Gregory Bohem, owner of “Mud Puddle” a New York publisher, as well as an avid collector of old cocktail books. He decided that he really, really, needed to come out with reprint of this book. Diligently he followed various leads, many of them dead-ends, until he finally located Mr. Embury’s only surviving relative, his daughter Ruth Embury. Mud Puddle was quickly able to arrange to do a reprint, and an excellently executed one at that.

You can order your copies from Amazon.com, or from Mud Puddles website: http://www.cocktailkingdom.com/

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have been working with Gregory Boehm as he worked toward creating this reprint, as well as several others that he offers, and I also wrote the forward for “The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks”. But I’d be heartily recommending this book even if I hadn’t been involved!