An enjoyable romp through the works of great writers as filtered through the lens of their love of spirits.

I'm grateful this book wasn't published during my early twenties...I'd probably need a new liver.
Great humor, excellent quotes by a bevy of hard-drinking , hard-living authors.
Favorites include Hunter S. Thompson's Greyhound -which turned into near binge level status when a dear friend treated me to an endless supply of organic grapefruit she'd grown with love.

You can't go wrong with the Jack Kerouac Margarita for campfire story imbibed uninhibited revelations.
When I'm feeling down and dirty, needing to take my (or someone else's ) demons out for exorcise:
Bukowski Boilermaker, try with Bird Dog peach whiskey. Make mine a double.

Last but always first in my world: Hemingway.
His sweet Mojito is other world yum. Light rum is key-Which you can now possess under the Papa Pilar brand.
Get your frosty highball glass out now.
Fresh mint- muddle like you mean it!
Blanco rum, lime juice , simple sugar, lime wedge to dress it up.
I can taste the sweetness on Hem's lips with each swallow. And remember the wise words of Hemingway,
"A man does not exist until he is drunk"

Very fun, informative, tactile book. I really enjoy it

Nate gave me this for xmas. Read on an empty stomach and Jim Beam, all day long. Puked in woods that night. A winner.

Raymond Carver, an alcoholic, died at 50. F. Scott Fitzgerald, party animal and stumble-down drunk, died at 44. Truman Capote hopped on and off the wagon repeatedly until he finally died at 59 from liver cancer. Tennessee Williams, an alcoholic, managed to live until age 71 before dying from a cocktail of brandy and downers, possibly choking on a bottle cap, several decades after producing the work that made him famous. William Faulkner, Jack London, John Cheever, Carson McCullers, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Bukowski, Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Parker, Anne Sexton -- all alcoholics, some with extended stints in sanitariums to dry out -- lived messy lives with messy marriages before dying way too young of diseases that look suspiciously alcohol-related to me. Faulkner, an alcoholic, fell off a horse and died a few days later. He was probably drunk at the time (I actually don't know this for a fact; his grandkids can sue me if I'm wrong.) None of this is mentioned in Hemingway & Bailey's Bartending Guide to Great American Writers, a compendium of the favorite drinks of these famous authors (and many more) with instructions on how to make them. Forty-three writers, 43 cocktails to choose from in this book. Don't feel like a drink? Inspiration accompanies every recipe. "Civilization begins with distillation" (Faulkner) and "A man does not exist until he is drunk" (Hemingway) and "I have a martini and I feel, once more, real." (Sexton) Chandler drank gimlets, Hemingway mojitos, Capote was fond of screwdrivers, Hunter Thompson liked something called a Greyhound. Etc. These writers, being writers, all left written evidence of their favorite cocktails, which Hemingway and Bailey tracked down and collected in this book. The authors plant the notion that you're not merely drinking, no, you're consuming those six Jack Roses to summon the muse who will one day conjure The Grapes of Wrath from your laptop. Maybe. They say writers like to drink. They don't say surgeons like to drink. They should, because they do. Jet pilots are huge drinkers. They don't say that either, which is probably a good thing. Arc welders drink, so do butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. Lawyers, lobbyists and public relations "professionals" drink prodigious amounts of booze. Salesmen? Oh my. Sixth-grade teachers toss them back with the best (as schoolteachers say, "It's 3 O'Clock Somewhere"). I forget where I was going with this. Anyhow, Hemingway & Bailey's Bartending Guide to Great American Writers is a nice enough bartending guide loosely based on the drinking habits of famous American writers. If you're able to suppress the realization that these were very bad habits, you'll enjoy this book as much as I have.