No writer can deny the charm of sitting in front of the computer on one of those lonely nights and accompanying the evening with a glass of wine (or two, or three) to help our inspiration "flow" more easily. It would also be necessary to see our faces when we woke up the next day and saw the, sometimes successful and other times embarrassing, result of our experiment.
A situation to which some of the the best known writers in history at some point or another, especially during the process of creating these 5 books written under the influence of alcohol and other substances.
Works that in this case we rescue without the intention of denouncing the vices of certain artists, but rather as an attempt to highlight the result of perhaps too liberated minds.
All this, yes, hoping that none of you follow some of the examples that we discuss below.
Cujo by Stephen King
The gossips claim that practically all King's bibliography during the late 70s and part of the 80s was written under the influence of alcohol and drugs, specifically cocaine, which lived its peak during the years in which Stephen King began to write the saga of The Dark Tower. However, of all his works Cujo was the one that took the worst part, since as the writer admitted years later "I hardly remember the process of writing the book." Curious.
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
A lover of parties, alcohol and drugs, Truman Capote is another of those authors known for his notorious addictions, the double martini being his favorite cocktail (and the Hemingway). During the process of writing the most famous work of the American, the author began the day with coffee and infusions to end up consuming up to three double martinis throughout the day.
On the road, by Jack Kerouac
Despite being a drug and alcohol addict, many claim that the book Kerouac wrote on that famous scroll was not conceived under the influence of any substance. A fact that we would also have to ask that great majority that confirms the use of Benzedrines (or amphetamines) during the gestation of the most famous work of the beat generation, of those post-World War II and countercultural youth or, also, the Technicolor generation, of those psychedelic worlds inspired by drugs that Kerouac made reference to on his great trip through America at the slightest occasion.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson
Stevenson's most famous work along with Treasure Island was written in just six days and as a product of a nightmare suffered by the author in 1885 from which his wife woke him up. "I was dreaming of the first transformation," Stevenson said soon after. From then on, and according to several biographers, the accelerated writing of the novel was due to the author's use of cocaine, a drug that at that time was legally used in most European countries after being introduced in ophthalmological therapies. Even Harrods sold it.
The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene
During his arrival in China in 1957, the British writer claimed that he only needed two things: "a pretty woman in his bed and many doses of opium." Practically the entire process of writing Power and Glory, a novel that stars a Roman Catholic priest, was written under the influence of benzathrines and opium, the favorite vice of an author who loved to try the "delicatessen" of each new country. that he was visiting, as was also reported during the writer's trip to Mexico in 1938.
These 5 novels written under the influence of alcohol and other substances They confirm that already famous trend of many writers by accompanying the writing process of their works with martinis, marijuana or pills. William Faulkner, Oscar Wilde or Ernest Hemingway (yes, the same one who said that phrase "write drunk, edit sober") are some of the best examples, although there is still no evidence that any of his works were conceived under such effects.
Do you usually make a "drink" when you write?
Interesting information. Although it is known that the consumption of certain substances, including alcohol, alters the psyche and surely an increase in creativity occurs, depending on the dose ingested.
Certainly, the intake of these substances is not necessary to create, since the mere creation promotes intense moods in the person who creates. Sincerely.
I see that some of Bukowski is missing… Greetings from Argentina.
Hemingway drank like a fish
Stephen King …. with or without ... the best
And Edgar Allan Poe ???