Considered one of America's greatest playwrights, Eugene O'Neill wrestled with alcoholism most of his life, but had a long period of sobriety, during which he wrote his best plays, Long Day's Journey into Night, and The Iceman Cometh. In his later years, he began drinking again and never regained his sobriety.
- Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953)
Another of America's finest writers, best known for his novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, and his superb essays in Notes of a Native Son, also fought the bottle.
- James Baldwin (1924 - 1987)
Best known for his addiction memoir, Permanent Midnight, which was made into a film, Jerry Stahl has also written several novels and movies, and has to his name a long list of TV credits. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize in Fiction.
- Jerry Stahl (1953-)
Frederick Exley, author of the autobiographical novel, A Fan's Notes, suffered from acute alcoholism and mental instability. His book, which gained a large cult following, is a harrowing account of his battle for sanity and his struggles with the bottle. A Fan's Note, rejected by Houghton Mifflin and Random House, eventually earned a $3,000 advance from Harper & Row.
- Frederick Exley (1929-1992)
After decades of alcoholic drinking, Carver gave up the bottle. For nine years, while sober, and before his death from cancer, he wrote what many consider his best works. Carver, however, was never entirely clean and sober, continuing to smoke marijuana and occasionally indulging in cocaine.
- Raymond Carver (1938-1988)
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!”
- Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)
O'Brien committed suicide by gunshot two weeks after learning that his novel, Leaving Las Vegas, was to be made into a movie. His father says that the novel was his suicide note.
- John O'Brien (1960-1994)
"That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen."
— Charles Bukowski (1920–1994)
"...Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the night."
- Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
"Though I'm not in the same league as the other writers on this site, I've definitely earned my place beside them on the bar stool."
- James Brown (1957- )
Alcohol is like love. The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl's clothes off.
- Raymond Chandler (1888-1959)
"I have found it easier to identify with the characters who verge upon hysteria, who were frightened of life, who were desperate to reach out to another person. But these seemingly fragile people are the strong people really."
— Tennessee Williams (1911-1983)
Alcoholic, often destitute, and abandoned by a series of men, Jean Rhys (1890-1979) led a tortured life, according to a new biography. Yet it was these very hardships, says Lesley McDowell, which made her the writer she was.
- The Independent
In Tom Dardis's book, The Thirsty Muse: Alcohol and the American Writer, he writes about William Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Eugene O'Neill, and the huge role drinking played in the their lives and their work. Of the four, Faulkner (1897-1962) seemed the worst of them, if alcoholism were measured by the sheer amount consumed. He frequently disappeared, holing up in a hotel room, and drinking days on end, just shy of the brink of death.
"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."
–Truman Capote (1924-1994)
"Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) was known for her drinking and suicidal tendencies while being one of the most accomplished female writers of poetry, prose and screenplays of her time."
- Martha R. Gore
Hunter Thompson's Suicide Note: "No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won't hurt."
- Hunter Thompson (1937-2005)
Hemingway battled alcoholism and depression, and continued to drink until taking his life at his Idaho hunting retreat with a shotgun.
- Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
"His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred. Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and their construction and he learned to think and could not fly any more because the love of flight was gone and he could only remember when it had been effortless."
- Hemingway writing about Fitzgerald
Stevenson purportedly wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on a 21 cocaine bender.
- Robert Lewis Stevenson (1850-1894)
