A photogallery of famous literary drunks & addicts. Below, Ernest Hemmingway, who I have never actually read (the shame!) but I just had to stick him here for you to see because of the awesomely distrubing description under the photo.
Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961): Booze
Notorious for making fun of his fellow writers who sought relief from their own alcoholism (when Fitzgerald admitted that alcohol had bested him, Hemingway urged him to toss his “balls into the sea — if you have any balls left”), Papa himself was an increasingly messy drunk. George Plimpton once famously observed that by the end, Hemingway’s ruined liver protruded from his belly “like a long fat leech.”
Famous Literary Drunks & Addicts – Photo Gallery, 27 Pictures – LIFE.
What a fantastic collection of photos that Life have put together here…
I’ll admit that I haven’t read any Hemmingway either… only a short story, “Hill Like White Elephants”. Quite impressive and gives an inkling the genius he was/is respected for.
I was discussing with someone the other day, why it’s so strange that authors never look like you’d expect them to… I think it’s because we put too much of their characters into them. Because I’m not very familiar with Hemmingway, I can accept that he looked like this… Louisa-May Alcott, however…Opium? Really? How very backward to her writing and characters!
I know, aren’t they epic? Who knew they had it in them? They have quite a few interesting photogalleries up, worthy of some clicks to be sure.
The only hemmingway i have read is the ultra-short story that goes thusly: For Sale. Baby Shoes. Never worn.
Although there seems to be some question of its legitimate origin over on snopes.
I have to admit, i never imagine what an author looks like till i see their picture. Maybe this shows a lack of imagination on my part or perhaps i just don’t care what they look like until i care enough to find a picture of them.
I haven’t read any Louisa-May Alcott but from what I’ve heard opium can cause very vivid feverlike dreams and with the unconscious being a very fertile soil for the writers imagination perhaps it is not too large a leap to think she found some inspiration in her addiction.
It worries me the amount of writers on this list I have admiration for: William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson…. Maybe what is more worrying is the number of writers on this list i have never heard of or read! I’d never heard that Kerouac quote that accompanies his photo, but i find it paticularly poignant.
Epic indeed! It’s ok there were many that I hadn’t heard of either…
I have read that baby shoes flash piece before, interesting about the origin dispute! The later version is certainly a lot tighter, whether it’s his or not.
Going over that album again, I always forget just how terrifying Stephen King looks.
I never imagine what an author looks like either – at least not consciously. Hell, if the book’s good enough I forget there ever was an author. I just know that sometimes when I see a picture, I think that it’s not what I expected. Chuck Palahniuk, for example – looks far too demure. Expected him to look far more like a bit of trouble-maker.
I think perhaps a lot of genius comes from extremes, and all the writers certainly took it there with their addictions.
Yeah, chuck looks pretty mild mannered doesn’t he? Of course, that doesn’t mean he is. I mean, i dunno if you’ve heard the anecdote, but he used to go to bars to deliberately get into fights and these instances went somewhat towards inspiring Fight Club. Couple this with the fact that he’s gay and you have an individual who defies easy and lazy characterisation. An interesting writer tends to make for interesting writing. Been a while since I’ve read anything of his, I should track something down.
In reply to your extremes comment Jeff VanderMeer, writing in his book booklife, makes the statement that all writers are in some way insane. There might be a review of that book coming up here at some point but in the meantime check out a sample chapter here
A link to Hills Like White Elephants:
http://www.moonstar.com/~acpjr/Blackboard/Common/Stories/WhiteElephants.html
tnx for the link! I hope to get around to reading it soon. ^_^
I love this, thanks for sharing.
thanks for the thanks!
I’ll have to get onto Jeff Vandermeer… sounds interesting.
had a chance for that Hemmingway yet?
I haven’t read any of his other stuff but Booklife is certainly one of the more useful books on writing and being a writer out there. Useful for bootstrapping your head into a productive position.
Haven’t gotten around to the hemmingway yet although I have been pondering your question about nirvana. It’s been several years since I’ve thought about it but I reckon I can come up with an interesting comment sometime tommorrow.
Have you considered including a few social bookmarking buttons to these sites. At the very least for myspace.
Every post has social bookmarking buttons at the bottom. Myspace isn’t one of them though – do people still use myspace for social networking? I just use it to listen to music.