Awesome site! Where the research began:
NPR: Great American Authors and Their Cocktails
Steve Inskeep; Mark Bailey
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6624971
(*Good quotes; gets you interested in subject; has recipes and anecdotes)
Good Reference for deaths of authors:
Wikipedia, Inc.; May 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deaths_through_alcohol
(*List of deaths due to alcoholism; another good jumping point)
Dorothy Parker-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker
Wikipedia: Dorothy Parker
Last modified: 20, May, 2007
(*Though she didn't play a prominent role in my research, she was often referenced to as a friend while I learned about other authors like Fitzgerald and Faulkner. It's worth knowing about some of her background)
Edgar Allan Poe-
Wikipedia: Edgar Allan Poe
May, 2007; Wikipedia Inc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe
(*Gave general information as well as good details about the hard times in his life)
http://www.eapoe.org/index.htm
(*This site is useful for debunking harsh Poe myths, but it appears fairly biased. Don't listen to the spin, but it's an interesting veiw.)
Mary Karr-
The Liars' Club from Nonfiction Classics for Students.
©2005-2006 Thomson Gale
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-liarsclub/sum.html
(*This site is good for an overveiw of the book. Look for sexual abuse refernces. Mary Karr also has many interveiws with magazines available through search online, if you need help finding information.)
The Liars Club, Mary Karr
Penguin, 1998
(*This is her book which describes in detail her mother's alocholic rages, her father's abandonment of the family, and the rest of her turbulent childhood)
Ernest Hemingway-
Frank Rich; "Hooching with Hemingway"
Modern Drunkard's Magazine, 2004.
Read Article on this site: http://www.moderndrunkardmagazine.com/issues/06_04/06-04-hemingway-pt-1.htm
(*This article has crazy Fitzgerald & Hemingway stories)
Oscar Wilde-
Clifton Snider; Oscar Wilde: A Queer Addict
2006, Clifton Snider.California State University
http://www.csulb.edu/~csnider/wilde.queer.addict.html
(*Useful resource to link his physcological problems with his alcohol abuse)
Lewis Carroll-
Biblio.com: Lewis Carroll Biography
Biblio.com: booksearch and marketplace; 2000-2007
(*This had more about physcoactive drugs than Wikipedia did)
Wikipedia; Lewis Carroll
Wikipedia Foundation, Inc; 16 May, 2007
(*Wikipedia gave some good general information)
Charles Dickens-
David Cody; Dickens: A brief biography
The Victorian Web
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/dickensbio1
(*The Victorian Web site also featured authors such as Poe and Wilde, along with useful information connecting their substance abuse to the manner of the Victorian time period)
F. Scott Fitzgerald:
Wikipedia: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Wikipedia Inc., May 2007
(*More stories about drunk Fitzgerald are found in the Modern Drunkard's article posted under Hemingway)
William Faulkner-
William Faulkner
Books & Writers; 2002
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/faulkner.htm
(*Better bio than wikipedia)
Use the author list on the side bar for looking up more good information to help you in your project. Try typing in "+alcohol" or "+substance abuse" with the author's name when you search.
Introduction
Many authors not only admitt to using (or abusing) alcohol, they are notorious drunks. This both added and detracted from their public image, and, in some cases, contributed to their deaths. A lot of famous authors' lives are shrouded in mystery and enigma, making it hard to decipher fact from fiction. Because people like Fitzgerald, or Hemingway, or Dickens, or Carroll never wanted the public to interfere with their private lives, they did their best to hide away. This spurred many myths about them, and now it's almost impossible to determine how big a role substance played in their lives. There is enough evidence, however to show that drugs and intoxicants, and their effects, were part of the public's perception of the great authors. The attention given to these people was controversial and often harsh and critising. It seems like the more attention they received, the more they tried to find solace in substance.
In cases such as Poe, Dickens, and Fitzgerald, a genetic disposition to alcholism (among depression and other mental disorders) must be recognized. Also, great tragedies occured in many of the author's lives, such as a death in the family, and there are accounts of drinking and reckless behavior increasing in the person after these events, which adheres to modern analysis of the disease. Also, early on in life, many of the authors were abandoned by family or otracized by peers, or had similar traumatizing childhood experiences which could lead them to pick up the bottle.
For a while, the drinking in their lives did bring them comfort, found them a place in a world which they veiwed as flawed, such as the "Lost generation" writers like Faulkner and Dorothy Parker. Eventually, the fun ebbed away and the drink became a serious addiction. Because of the extent of their drinking, many authors suffered internal damage. Kurt Vonnegut recently died due to complications which arose from years of hard alcoholism. Hemingway commited suicide, unable to deal with his own demons even heavily sedated.
There are a new slew of alcoholic authors, though, who are perceived to be "recovered". They not only admitt to their substance abuse, they base careers on it. Memoirists such as Augusten Burroughs, Koren Zailckas, Nicholas Flynn, and before them people like Malcom Lowry, record all they can remember (which isn't much, or very coherent) from those days, and the public now rushes to the bookshelves, wiping them clean of the drunken works. In the days before these memoirs, the drunken escapades of fiction writers garnered enough attention to boost sales significantly, also. However deep the vein of alcoholism runs in the public's minds, it is certainly has taken its place in literature's history.
Task
While sifting through the drunken scrapes of the authors listed, it is up to you to discover 1. why they might have turned to alcohol/drugs, 2. how big of a presence it really played in their lives, 3. how their abuse was viewed by the public. In some cases, myths regarding a writer's antics outshine the rather dull truth. Some authors may have been crying out for help for years, lost in an agonizing swirl of liquor binges, but friends, family, and readers never realized the urgency of the message in time to save them. In all accounts, there are bleak truths in these peoples' pasts which have made them seek means of escape. When art isn't enough to get away, something else must be found to achieve release.
Monday, May 21, 2007
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Task one: Underlying Factors (part one)
Why would someone group together the authors David Sedaris, Tennesee Williams, Augusten Burroughs, Oscar Wilde and Truman Capote together, other than all of them having alcohol abuse problems?
Task One: Underlying Factors (part two)
What similar traumatic events took place in these authors' childhoods? Do you think that hurtful events in the past affect a person later on in life (i.e.- abandonment, deaths, extreme conditions, social awkwardness, abuse)? How do our pasts shape who we become? Use the link on the sidebar about "childhood abuse & alcoholism" to help understand why these events may be more important than just "useful material" in an author's life.
Task Two: Later events and downfalls (Part one)
Read about the hijinks of the "lost generation" stars (Fitzgerald, Hemingway), and also about the "Merry pranksters and friends" (Ken Kesey, Tom Wolfe, Timothy Leary, Kurt Vonnegut), and "beat" poets (Kerouac, Ginsberg, William Burroughs) . How do you think that their (mis)adventures established a whimsical image of the authors in the public's mind? Do you think that this image was glorified or emmulated by people later? Notice the birthdates of the more recent "Alcoholic memoirists" (A. Burroughs, Sedaris, Karr, James Frey). Are there any links between the time these authors were born and the height of the infamy of the previous listed authors?
Then look up information on the deaths of the infamous authors. How did substance or alcohol abuse play a role in their demise? Do you think that people focusing on these authors' celebrity, instead of their works, is missing the point of their careers?
Task Two: Later events and downfalls (part two)
The public didn't always glorify drug and alcohol abuse in their authors. In some cases, the authors were condemned for their outrageous behaviors and disliked during their lifetime. Sometimes public opinion changed in just a few months (look at Oscar Wilde's trial in 1895). Find information on authors like Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, and Edgar Allan Poe. What was the overall opinion of these people during their lifetime? Did society veiw these authors' escapades the same as they did the authors' in part one? Especially, contrast these negative opinions with the ones society held for Charles Dickens, who acheived fame during the same time as these men. Why do you think that people could think positively of one drunk's work, and so negatively about another's?
Next, look up the deaths of these writers. Do their deaths share any of the same characteristics as any of the deaths mentioned in part one? Are there suicides? Did they die alone? Is there any mention of heavy drinking toward the end of their lives? What about Dickens, who held a relatively respectable place in society during his life. William Faulkner also held a respectable place in society during his life. Are there any similarities between his death and Dickens?
Task 3: Reflection
How did the myths and mystique surrounding these authors contribute to popular opinion and veiw of their works? Do you think that they would have as many readers, have acheived as great celebrity had they not been seen as raving drunks? Is it bad that their infamy sometimes outshines their talent, or do you think that they should be taken as two separate topics not entirely related? Are some of the assumptions about these writers overblown (Carroll, Poe)? In the cases where the substance abuse was glorified (Hemingway, Kerouac, Vonnegut), do you think people should have looked more at the extent of the dependence taking place? Would that have affected people's opinions about these authors negatively or positively? Would it have made a difference on how their writing was received?
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