“Charles Baudelaire (1821 – 1867): Booze, Opium; Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849): Alcohol, Opiates; Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 – 1861): Opium; Stephen King (1947 – present): Booze, Cocaine, Prescription Meds; Dorothy Parker (1893 – 1967): Alcohol; Brendan Behan (1923 – 1964): Alcohol; Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888): Opium…”
The list goes on, and while the collection topic is banal, the photos are fascinating: LIFE magazine’s photo gallery of “Famous Literary Drunks & Addicts” (boozy quotes included, of course).
6 responses
Does LIFE have to reinforce its racist image every time? What about James Baldwin, who at one time drank a fifth of vodka every day? Shouldn’t the title be “FAMOUS WHITE LITERARY DRUNKS & ADDICTS”?
@Marilyn: Damn. Good. Point.
You should write ’em: whatdidwemiss@life.com. If you do write them, it’d be awesome if you posted your letter here as well.
Ha… this still doesn’t beat one of my favorite drinking quotes from Porfirio Barba Jacob, a Colombian poet. He said, and I’m paraphrasing, that when you feel you can’t take another drink, drink two more–that’s when the real journey begins.
Thanks for the tip. I sent the following:
Why does your list have to be so white? What about James Baldwin, who drank a fifth of vodka a day, frequently wrote about drinking, and dedicated “Another Country” to Mary S. Painter, an alcoholic?
Didn’t Roberto Bolano hae some kind of drinking/drugging history as well?
I’ve heard criticism of LIFE before, about its tendency to portray a clean, shiny white world, where the only black people are downtrodden but brave and stoic, just waiting for some good white people to rescue them.
It is the New Millenium, after all.
Funny. That critique (such as it is) of Life as a racist rag is as old as the magazine itself — and about as typically a reductionist approach as one could find anywhere. Next thing you know we’ll be hearing how the use of the term “Jap” by the magazine’s editors during WWII was just another sublimated call for the subjugation of an entire continent by imperialist forces disguised as working class Marines, draftees, and dog soldiers. By the way, Baldwin is in that gallery now — albeit with a caption that reads “suggested by a reader.” Maybe they’re paying attention after all! (And if you spend five minutes on the site you’ll see more galleries geared toward civil rights than on any other website out there.) Still and all, your point about the absurd whiteness of the list is well-taken. Was Richard Wright a lush or speed freak, by any chance?
I don’t think Wright was addicted to anything except his ego.
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