NPR posted a list of famous writers and their preferred alcoholic beverages from the Hemingway and Bailey’s Bartending Guide. A quick glance suggests I’m way behind on the “colorful drinking story” front.

In fact, I’m looking a the boring cup of hot tea sitting by my keyboard and realizing I need to develop some quirky drinking habits or I’ll never become famous.

I’m adding it to my “things to do” list right now.

Here’s an excerpt from the section on Raymond Chandler, who drank to finish his Blue Dahlia screenplay (one of his best):

He told his producer, John Houseman, that although he was a recovering alcoholic and had been sober for some time, he could only finish the script if he relapsed completely. Houseman arranged for Paramount to place six secretaries at Chandler’s house around the clock. A doctor was hired to give him vitamin shots, as he rarely ate when drinking. Limousines waited outside, ready to run pages at a moment’s notice. In the end he produced one of his best original scripts, and the story of his self-sacrifice became Hollywood legend.

Let’s hope he got a percentage of the gross.
[tags]writer, drinking, hemingway, faulkner, fitzgerald, NPR[/tags]