ABSINTHE: (What I Was Drinking This Past Friday Night)...

ABSINTHE:

The Famous Drinkers

Many of the famous writers and painters during the "Belle Epoque" were constant and heavy absinthe drinkers. If it was absinthe that helped their writing, or if it was just alcohol in general, I will not go in to here. However many great books, poems and plays have been written by these authors, and many beautiful paintings and sculptures have been created by the people imbibing the most absinthes. So it had to count for something. Then there were those who were against it all. The terrible drink just had to be stopped, no matter what! One of those was Marie Corelli, who did everything in her powers to stop absinthe from becoming as popular in Great Britain as was it in France. Still, I've included her here, since her writings are excellent and actually empowers the myth further.

Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)Poet and adventurer


French poet and adventurer who won renown among the Symbolist movement and markedly influenced modern poetry. He is considered the best illustration of symbolist aesthetics. He was also the lover of Verlaine. The two were in constant fights and arguments which at one time led to Verlaine shooting Rimbaud in the wrist.




Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)Painter, sculptor and much more

Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, print maker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century and the creator (with Georges Braque) of Cubism. Many of his finest productions are influenced by absinthe, or maybe created under the influence...


Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)Author

References to absinthe appear in many of Hemingway's famous writings, including Death In The Afternoon and For Whom The Bell Tolls. He was a great fan and a bad drunk, especially with his love of guns and knives. Hemingway drank absinthe long after it was made illegal in most parts of the world. In Spain, he would have a few before running with the bulls in Pamplona, while it is also rumoured that he managed to have a few bottles around him while living in the United States. Hemingway committed suicide in 1961.

Ernest Dowson (1867-1900)Poet

One of the best known of the Decadents, an absintheur and, unusually for the time, an Englishman, Dowson understood the romantic properties of the green spirit: 'Whiskey and beer are for fools,' he once said; 'absinthe has the power of the magicians; it can wipe out or renew the past, and annul or foretell the future.'

Charles Cros (1842-1888)Poet, inventor, musician, painter and chemist

Cros is generally recognised as the inventor of the phonograph, a device he called a Paréophone. But lacking financial resources, he was unable to patent his device before Thomas Edison and others developed the idea and started production. Cros was also acknowledged for developing certain colour photography processes and an automatic telegraph. How he managed to come up with those, and how he managed to find the time and mind to actually do anything is a mystery, since he was known to frequent some of the most known cafés in Paris and drink up to twenty absinthes a day.

Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)Poet

Baudelaire was a moody, rebellious genius. Along with Ernest Dowson, Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine he formed the poetic group The Decadents. His work Les Fleurs du Mal (1857) led to him being prosecuted for obscenity and blasphemy. It is now recognised as a masterpiece. He moved briefly to Belgium, but with his health debilitated by syphilis and an excess of opium, he died in poverty and destitution. Only about 60 mourners attended his funeral, one of them his great friend Manet. Most people assumed that he had already died, such was his drug and absinthe intake.

August Strindberg (1849-1912)Playwright, novelist, short-story writer

Swedish playwright, novelist, and short-story writer, who combined psychology and Naturalism in a new kind of European drama that evolved into Expressionist drama. His play Miss Julie (1888) remains today the most concentrated example of the first step in the development of Modern drama because it shattered old illusions about the meaning and worth of human existence and 19th century assumptions about the way existence could be presented in theater. During his years in Paris in the 1880's he came across absinthe, just as every other person in France around that time. A drink he came to love and mention in some of his works.

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)Painter

He suffered from hereditary mental illness for most of his life, but such is the drink's reputation that it always seems to be blamed for his self-abusive behaviour. But the extent of his absinthe intake, and its influence on his work and behaviour is unknown. Most scholars agree that he was an avid drinker, addicted to a catalogue of substances, even paint thinner. He may also have been a victim of poisoning from digitalis, which at the time was a common treatment for epilepsy. This might account for the trademark halo effect in his depiction of light sources (digitalis can cause some users to become ultra-sensitive to light). The psychosis he is known to have experienced is more consistent with acute alcoholism than absinthism.

Paul Marie Verlaine (1844-1902)Poet

Verlaine sung the praises of absinthe in his youth, and damned absinthe on his deathbed. He consorted with prostitutes and men while drinking, to the dismay of his young wife, and for a time the younger poet Rimbaud was his constant companion, both platonically and sexually.

Marie Corelli (1855-1924)Novelist

Marie Corelli (real name "Mary Mackay") was probably born somewhere in London in May of 1855, daughter of Charles Mackay, a Scottish poet and song writer. Despite the savage attacks of critics, her books often broke sales records. She was the only author invited to the coronation of Edward VII, and counted among her friends Mark Twain, Ouida, the Empress Frederick of Germany, and many other writers and members of royalty. Her books are imaginative, philosophical and mystical. She took it upon herself to cure the world of all it's social ills. Among her best works are Thelma (1887), Wormwood (1890), Barabbas (1893), The Sorrows of Satan (1895) and a few more. Most interesting for us here, is Wormwood. Written to scare the British from enjoying absinthe, as did the french. Reading it makes one wonder if she wasn't drinking it herself!