Famous Literary Drunks & Addicts

[Flip217]

http://www.life.com/image/50698313/in-gallery/38742/famous-literary-drunks--addicts

From Life.com. I like Charles Baudelaire's quote: "Always be drunk ... Get drunk militantly. Just get drunk." I have to admit I've applied that approach a few times.

[sakata_catching]

Interesting topic and list, but the absence of Eugene O'Neill and Malcolm Lowry — two literary drunks who made addiction their great theme — seems odd.

Fred Exley and Raymond Carver are notable omissions as well.

Love the photo of Berryman. "There ought to be a law against Henry. / Mr Bones: There is."

[Lucky Jim]

Interesting topic and list, but the absence of Eugene O'Neill and Malcolm Lowry — two literary drunks who made addiction their great theme — seems odd.

Fred Exley and Raymond Carver are notable omissions as well.

Love the photo of Berryman. "There ought to be a law against Henry. / Mr Bones: There is."

"Ever to confess you're bored/means you have no Inner Resources."

Berryman was fired from the Writers' Workshop at Iowa after he stumbled home drunk - yet again - and his landlady wouldn't let him back into the house. So he promptly took a dump on the porch.

It's amazing how the drinking/writing thing manifests itself, and how much it's accepted, tolerated, and even nurtured in literary culture.

Of course, the other thing to note is the often truncated or too-short careers of the serious drinkers. It's no way to live. It's no way to make a life writing. It's a crappy way to die, because it's resolutely inglorious.

Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure when I was in Iowa, the arrests among workshoppers outnumbered arrests of athletes about 2:1. After I got in some legal trouble, I was worried they were going to yank my fellowship, so I went to talk to the head of the department. I explained my situation, and he said, "what, you think you're the first to do that?"

Drinking and writing. Ah. I bought into the drinking life full-bore (of course, the fact that I came from a working-class drinking culture didn't hurt). So much so, that an ostensibly good review of my work once commented that some readers might find its "concern with self-destructive behavior adolescent." That said, the concern was well-earned.

I look back at the late 90s and am happy I'm alive and gainfully employed.

Exley and Lowery are sort-of examples of my point about sustaining a life as a writer while being a serious drinker. High-points, but little consistency. And even the good work is uneven.

We should also note the folks who drank and then didn't. James Wright. Denis Johnson. Others?

[Flip217]

I guess I'm fortunate to have a weak constitution; if I really get my drink on, there's not much happening the next day -- no writing, no reading, very little movement at all, in fact. So I learned pretty early that being a frequent heavy indulger just wasn't practical for me.

Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't been wildly impractical quite a bit.

I suppose, like many other things, it works for some people, it sort of works for others, and it doesn't work at all for most. Any sort of creative stuff I've done while intoxicated -- writing, drawing, music -- always seems inspired and impressive until I sober up. Then they just seem goofy.

Did you guys check out the comments? I read one that refuted Poe's opium habit, but I thought that was pretty well confirmed. But I also know that he was the victim of quite the hatchet job on his reputation after his death, so now I wonder if his opium intake was exaggerated as part of that smear campaign.

[Lucky Jim]

I guess I'm fortunate to have a weak constitution; if I really get my drink on, there's not much happening the next day -- no writing, no reading, very little movement at all, in fact. So I learned pretty early that being a frequent heavy indulger just wasn't practical for me.

Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't been wildly impractical quite a bit.

I suppose, like many other things, it works for some people, it sort of works for others, and it doesn't work at all for most. Any sort of creative stuff I've done while intoxicated -- writing, drawing, music -- always seems inspired and impressive until I sober up. Then they just seem goofy.

Did you guys check out the comments? I read one that refuted Poe's opium habit, but I thought that was pretty well confirmed. But I also know that he was the victim of quite the hatchet job on his reputation after his death, so now I wonder if his opium intake was exaggerated as part of that smear campaign.

I've read pretty convincing arguments that Poe drank little and did no drugs.

Not many serious writers (that I'm aware of) actually drank while writing. Not that I know of. Most veered between sobriety/work and drinking. Hemingway, for instance, had a rule: no drinking while working or even the night before. At least, when he was younger and productive.

Drinking is an easier proposition for poets, too, because it's not the long-haul process that writing a novel is.

I think a lot of times folks make the mistake of thinking that writers who drank a lot wrote while drunk. I've never written a poem while drunk. And I was drinking or drunk for about 75% of my post-7pm hours from 1994 to 2001 (when my entire life was based around writing poems, teaching literature, and drinking). For me, that was possible because I never suffered bad hangovers before I was 29 or 30. (Or rarely.) I averaged about 5 hours of sleep a night and was fine.

BTW, drugs probably played more of a role in writing than alcohol - especially speed. Plenty of writers took speed to write. Drinking is far less utilitarian: it dulls your senses and slows you down. It's a retreat from the heightened state that good writing requires. A way of medication, not a door to productive work.

Now, don't get me wrong, the above is full of assumptions and general platitudes. It clearly doesn't apply universally.

[TyCobb]

Dylan was into speed and booze big time. Not 100% sure if he was drunk when he wrote his songs, but my educated guess would be...YES.

[Lucky Jim]

Dylan was into speed and booze big time. Not 100% sure if he was drunk when he wrote his songs, but my educated guess would be...YES.

Maybe, maybe not. I'm not talking about songwriting though. Which, despite the protestations of plenty of folks who'd like to tell me that Desolation Row is as good a poem as The Waste Land, are very different animals than poems and novels.

[TyCobb]

Maybe, maybe not. I'm not talking about songwriting though. Which, despite the protestations of plenty of folks who'd like to tell me that Desolation Row is as good a poem as The Waste Land, are very different animals than poems and novels.

Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie isn't a song at all and is probably my favorite poem ever.

I would also say that I rate 'Chimes of Freedom' above 'Desolation Row' by a hair.