The thirsty muse

“The Thirsty Muse: Alcohol and the American Writer” explores the central role that drinking played in the personal lives and artistic output of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and Eugene O’Neill.

Drawing on biographical research and an understanding of alcoholism as a progressive disease, Dardis traces how alcohol initially seemed to offer these writers inspiration and camaraderie but ultimately contributed to creative decline, physical and psychological deterioration, and in some cases premature death.

The book combines literary criticism, biography, and addiction studies to show how deeply entwined the myth of the hard‑drinking writer was with American literary culture in the twentieth century.