author
James Garfield Riley
b. 1881
A government chemist by trade, this early 20th-century writer is best remembered for co-authoring a close-up study of American beer and ale. His work brings together science, industry, and everyday life in a way that still feels unexpectedly fresh.
1 Audiobook
A Study of American Beers and Ales
by James Garfield Riley, L. M. Tolman
About the author
Born in 1881, James Garfield Riley was an American scientific writer and chemist rather than a literary celebrity. The clearest source available here identifies him through his work on A Study of American Beers and Ales, published in 1917.
That study names him as J. Garfield Riley, assistant chemist at the Food and Drug Inspection Laboratory in New York, working with Lucius M. Tolman. Together they examined the makeup of American beers and ales and compared brews made from malt alone with those made using other cereal ingredients.
Very little biographical information about Riley appears to be readily available from reliable online sources, which gives his surviving work an archival charm. What remains is a compact snapshot of American food science in the Progressive Era, written by someone working close to the practical questions of quality, analysis, and regulation.