Alcohol as Muse

The first half of the twentieth century saw a veritable epidemic of alcoholism among famous American writers. Novelists, short story writers, poets, and dramatists were afflicted with alcoholism in large numbers. In the nineteenth century only one famous American writer—Edgar Allan Poe—was known to be alcoholic. This paper addresses this twentieth-century phenomenon and raises the question: Does alcohol facilitate writing? Some would argue that this never happens, but examples are cited of alcoholic writers who produced superior works late in their careers, suggesting that alcohol at least does not invariably destroy creative talent. Presented are various theories why writers drink.