September | 2013 | Guy Portman's Blog

Alcoholic Authors II

Sep 27 2013

Following on from last week, this is part two of my Alcoholic Authors series.

James Joyce

(February 2nd 1882 – January 13th 1941)

Notable works: Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, A, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Irish novelist and poet James Augustine Aloysius Joyce is regarded as one of the most influential writers of the modernist avante-garde of the early Twentieth-century. In 1999 Time Magazine named Joyce amongst the hundred most important people of the last century. In 1998 Modern Library ranked Joyce’s seminal work, Ulysses, as the best English language novel of the Twentieth-century. Another of his books, A, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, came in at number three on the same list.

Joyce was a notorious binge drinker, who was adamant that he could not write as well without the aid of alcohol. There is no doubt that Ulysses, an innovative work that utilised a stream of consciousness narrative would have been very different had the author not been under the influence whilst writing it. Various theories have been proposed as to why Ireland’s greatest ever writer drank so heavily, perhaps it was in part due to his father having been a heavy drinker or the fact that he was affected so profoundly by the death of his mother from cancer during his early adulthood.

During his time living in Paris Joyce was a drinking buddy of Ernest Hemingway. The slightly-built, bespectacled Joyce was said to often start bar fights and then hide behind the much bigger Hemingway, yelling, ‘deal with him, Hemingway. Deal with him.’

Hunter S. Thompson

(July 18th 1937 – February 20th 2005)

Notable works: Hells Angels, Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas, The Rum Diary.

The father of Gonzo journalism, a style of journalism written without claims of objectivity that usually takes the form of a first-person narrative, Hunter S. Thompson was an iconic figure in the counter-culture. The writer first became well known internationally for his book, Hells Angels (1967).

The author was known for his lifelong heavy use of alcohol and drugs. Substance abuse is a central theme in much of his writing, including his most famous work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thompson drunk a wide range of alcoholic beverages, whiskey being a particular favourite. More often than not he was said to have started the day with beer and cocktails before progressing to straight liquor. Never one for the vagaries of waiters Thompson would typically order three to six drinks at a time.

At a first meeting with a New York publishers, a young Thompson allegedly drunk twenty double Wild Turkeys in about three hours. At the meeting’s conclusion he walked out as if he had been sipping tea. He once famously said,

‘I hate to advocate for drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.’

Thompson suffered from a bout of health problems in later life, culminating in his suicide aged sixty-seven. Per the author’s wishes his ashes were fired out of a cannon in a ceremony funded by friend and star of the movie adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Johnny Depp.

Click here to read part one of Alcoholic Authors.

Alcoholic Authors I

Sep 20 2013

Many writers have had a dependence on alcohol. There has been much speculation as to the reasons why many writers drink so heavily. Perhaps in some instances it is due to the author’s solitary working habits or their pensive melancholy nature, in others maybe it is to obliterate bad memories or to increase confidence. This blog post is dedicated to two heavy drinking famous authors.

Ernest Hemingway

(July 21st 1899 – July 2nd 1961)

Notable works: The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man & the Sea.

Ernest Hemingway is remembered as a pillar of American literature, a writer with a unique style, who won both The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1953) and The Nobel Prize in Literature (1954). The acclaimed author led an adventurous existence, travelling widely and marrying four times. Tragically the latter stages of his life were marred by mental deterioration, culminating in suicide in Idaho aged sixty-one.

The iconic writer was a notorious drinker for most of his life though he did not write whilst under the influence. Hemingway was so keen on drinking that writer Philip Greene was inspired to write, To Have & Have Another, a book devoted to Hemingway’s drinking habits. The author’s favourite beverage was said to be Mojito, which he insisted on having ice-cold. A number of alcohol related quotes have been attributed to Hemingway, perhaps most famously, ‘Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk.’

William Faulkner

(September 25th 1897 – July 6th 1962)

Notable works: Light in August, Absalom Absalom!, The Sound and the Fury.

William Cuthbert Faulkner to give his full name is one of the most important writers in the history of American literature – winner of The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice (1955 & 1963) and The Nobel Prize for Literature (1949). His novel The Sound and the Fury is ranked by Modern Library as the sixth greatest English language novel of the Twentieth-century.

A lifelong heavy drinker, Faulkner, in contrast to many writers, liked to write under the influence – a bottle of whiskey, preferably bourbon was generally within arms reach. The author was notorious for his binge drinking and it was fortunate that he had a remarkable capacity for recovery. Whiskey was his first love, but he was also keen on wine and brandy. Faulkner’s favourite cocktail was a mint julep – a mix of bourbon, a teaspoon of sugar and a spring or two of crushed mint and ice. Faulkner once said, ‘Civilization begins with distillation.’

Click here to read resident book reviewer Adam’s review of Absalom Abaslom!

You might be interested in this revealing if rather lengthy article from The Guardian about why authors drink.

Posthumously Famous Authors IV

Sep 13 2013

This is the final instalment of the Posthumously Famous Authors series.

Henry David Thoreau

(July 12th 1817 – May 6th 1862)

Notable works: Civil Disobedience, Walden, The Works of Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod.

An author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, environmentalist and transcendentalist, the multi-dimensional Henry David Thoreau’s prodigious writing output consists of nearly twenty volumes of writing. Thoreau was well known as a transcendentalist, naturalist and ardent abolitionist during his lifetime and even succeeded in having two books published, neither of which were very popular. He famously self-published A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, but only sold three hundred of the one thousand copies that he had printed.

It was only after Thoreau’s death in 1862, aged forty-four, from tuberculosis, that the respected but largely under-appreciated writer began to receive the attention that he deserved. The event that was to herald this transformation was the publishing of his journal in 1906. Thoreau’s works were to become increasingly popular over the course of the twentieth-century.

Today Thoreau is recognised as being one of the greatest writers America has ever produced. His views on politics and nature, in addition to his modern prose style having assured him of a place in history. Thoreau’s memory is honoured by The International Thoreau Society, which is both the largest and oldest society dedicated to an American author.

Edgar Allan Poe

(January 19th 1809 – October 7th 1849)

Notable works: The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, Tamerlane & Other Poems.

Edgar Allan Poe was an author, poet, literary critic and editor who flirted with fame for much of his working life. If it were not for his rather premature death, the cause of which is debated to this day, with theories ranging from tuberculosis to rabies, Poe might indeed have become famous.

Poe relished the macabre, a reoccurring theme in much of his writing. Unfortunately there was little appetite for the genre during his lifetime. However he did achieve a degree of popularity though not financial success with his poem, The Raven. (Poe was reportedly paid $9 for The Raven, a very modest sum even in the 1840s).

Today Poe is remembered not only as being one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, but is also generally considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre. Evidence of the writer’s endearing popularity is the fact that an original copy of Poe’s Tamerlane and Other Poems sold at Christie’s in New York for $662,500, a record price for a work of American literature.

Social Media Reflections

Sep 06 2013

Prior to the publication last year of my novel, Charles Middleworth, an insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected, my social media presence consisted of merely a Facebook profile with a couple of pictures (not of cats). Shortly before the book’s release I made a foray into Twitter and have since embraced a range of social media platforms. In this post I reflect on my social media observations to date:

Twitter – A little over seven years ago a Tweet was the sound emitted by a variety of small birds. Today Tweets are synonymous with only one bird, the blue Twitter bird; a bird that tweets incessantly 24/7. To date approximately 170 billion Tweets have been sent by 500 million Twitter users.

As my blog followers know I have become somewhat obsessed with Twitter and have devoted numerous posts to Twitter related subjects, ranging from studying the species that inhabit Twitter, to Twitter grievances including Justin Bieber and the ways in which authors sell books on Twitter.

Observation: The value of Twitter lies in the personal connections one makes, not in intrusive and counterproductive blanket promotional Tweeting.

Facebook – Facebook remains the behemoth of social media with over a billion users each month. Much of the promotional efforts on Facebook revolve around getting Likes for your given page/s. However the value of these Likes is more often than not derisory. Research suggests 99% of Facebook fans are worthless.

It is worth noting that Facebook only displays your posts to a small percentage of the people that have Liked your page. Facebook also charges users to promote their posts after reaching the 500+ Like threshold.

Observation: Not all Likes are equal. The value of a given Like is derived from its origin (i.e. authors require Likes from their target-readership not other authors).

Linked-in – The site’s 238m users take their jobs seriously and turn up smartly dressed and ready to network. They do not appreciate the ruckus of some other social media sites (i.e. Twitter) and expect decorum at all times. Self-promotion needs to be conducted with restraint. Some have argued that the platform’s obsession with stamping down on self-promotion has become overly aggressive of late (see this Forbes article). Personally I do not use the site a great deal but can occasionally be found at one its numerous groups dedicated to writers.

Observation: A great place to get advice and network with others, but remember that the party hat people might find amusing on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest will probably not go down well here. Oh and there is no need for those pictures of your cat – I don’t care if it is cute.

Goodreads – With 20 million members and 2.5 million reviews, goodreads is the place to be to network with readers. I find myself relishing this Bieberless enclave every time I visit. Goodreads is a place where one is able to concentrate on book related matters without being interrupted by scantily clad South-East Asian jail-bait promising to love you long time whilst trying to sell you thousands of Followers for $10.

Goodreads is an ideal place for authors to meet readers; readers being the key word. If one only socialises with one’s author friends on the site, then the whole dog chasing its own tail scenario starts all over again.

Observation: Etiquette is the key word with goodreads. Its users are fastidious in embracing social norms and will more often than not meet unsolicited friend requests and self-promotion with contempt.

Google+ – There is much evidence to suggest that the Google search engine matches search results with Google+. This is reason enough to join the 500m users in calling the place home. It was only recently that I turned up at Google+, bunch of flowers in hand. However I received no love, so I came back with a box of chocolates, but my efforts still went ignored. I am determined that one day in the not too distant future I will be viewed as a valued member of this increasingly influential community.

Observation: Backed by its big brother Google, Google+ is set to grow exponentially over the forthcoming years and may well be where the party will be at.

What happens when Adrian, an actuary, has his banal and predictable existence turned upside down by sinister forces that he can neither understand nor control? How will he react to a revelation that leaves his life in turmoil? Will he surrender or strive for redemption in an altered world, where rationality, scientific logic and algorithms no longer provide the answers?

‘An insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected’ – Reader

‘A sardonic delight. If Thackeray had lived in the 21st century, then he might have written Charles Middleworth.’ – Reader

Charles Middleworth is available through most regional Amazons on Kindle (£1.96/$3.17) and in paperback.

United Kingdom – www.amazon.co.uk

USA – www.amazon.com