A Drinking Companion: Alcohol and Writers' Lives

by Kelly Boler

In an effort to cut back on his drinking, F. Scott's Fitzgerald briefly limited himself to only one glass of beer--thirty times a day.  Dashiell Hammett drank himself into a writer's block that lasted thirty years, and John Cheever conquered a decade-long addiction to create his greatest novel.  Malcolm Lowry would drink anything from gin to formaldehyde, while housewife/poet Anne Sexton always traveled with a thermos full of martinis.  In her book "Drinking Alcohol and the Lives of Writers", Kelly Boler looks at the many different ways that liquor ran through the lives and works of fifteen great writers.  Told from varying vantage points--fame and obscurity, glamour and despair, suicide and recovery, shame and bravado --these stories shed an important light on the role that alcohol played in the real lives of our most creative artists.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Mark Desrosiers · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is misleading: this is not a general overview of how writers relate to (and often depend upon) alcohol. Instead, we get fifteen gossipy profiles of great (often brilliant) writers who were also notorious drunkards.

There is no overriding theme or even a paradigm for how these writers came to be drunkards, or whether the sauce helped or hindered their work. The set of scribblers here ranges from neurotic weirdos (Malcolm Lowry and his micropenis, or the Caligula-style kinks of Robert Lowell) to seemingly normal domestic types (John Cheever, Anne Sexton). In between you get surprising booze-fueled sexaholics (Jean Rhys, Marguerite Duras), canonic titans (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tennesee Williams), and a couple fascinating asshole poets (James Dickey, John Berryman). Plus, y'know, Dashiell Hammett and Kingsley Amis and Jack London and Carson McCullers... a curious, high-maintenance rogues gallery of rubes and dipsos. One of the most entertaining books on the "writing life" I've ever read.

[Sandra Strange · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book examines the lives and deaths in relation to their alcohol drinking habits of famous and sort of famous authors of the 20th Century, including Fitzgerald, London, Tennessee Williams and others. The book is hard to read as story after story traces the disintegration of most of these drinkers. Some disciplined themselves to write, some could write under alcohol's influence, but most were destroyed by their drinking.

[Jeff Russo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, quick paced, sordid without explicit sexual detail - kind of like little toned-down Blood Moon biographies.

[Carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty great read. When I picked it up, I expected a light-hearted, "Great writers drink, but look at what they did!" What I got was a very disturbing look into the lives of several writers. In the introduction, Kelly Boler points out that after seeing what alcohol did to these authors, and their friends and family, one may have a negative outlook on alcohol. Indeed so.

Most of these writers were so incredibly selfish and helpless, they couldn't do anything on their own, and expected others to do everything (including feed them) for them. Not only did these authors (male and female alike) have a large dependence on alcohol (and most of them, other drugs as well), but also felt that sex was something they needed constantly. Despite marriages, kids, professions of love to their partners, these authors were out of control.

It is interesting to see how all of these contemporary authors (all living at the turn of, or during the 20th century) lived. This book has given me a new light for which to look at the literature I read. Also, it has opened up a world of poetry and fiction that I want to read.

I don't consider myself particularly interested in reading nonfiction (biographies included) but this was really interestng.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but depressing collection of how famous authors, poets and play writers handled alcohol. Do they drink to create, drink to forget, drink to get over a block, or drink to tame madness? Many many reasons.The results; brilliantly burning talent twisted by booze, and often fizzling to a sordid finale.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great book! If you are interested in the rediculous, socially unacceptable excesses of some of the greatest writers of the 20th century, you can't do much better than this book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Death by misadventure." What better way for a drunk writer to go.

[Josh Dupont · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great material... Terrible writing.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had to put it up due to a bought of sobriety, but will return soon, I'm sure.