Hemingway & Bailey's Bartending Guide to Great American Writers Read Online Free Page A

thrown out of the open window into a stony field, and the first thing your father did was to look into the luggage compartment to see what had happened to the Scotch. There I was, bleeding to death, and he was counting bottles.”

James Gould Cozzens

    “With a beer mug beside you, it’s now whatever o’clock it is, and all’s (for the prolonged moment) well.”
    Cozzens typically drank a double scotch with lunch, two doubles before dinner (poured with a heavy hand), and four beers afterward. At age sixty-seven, he was informed by his doctor that his liver was enlarged and he needed to go on the wagon. Cozzens complied, abstaining from all alcohol, even his much beloved beer. Whatever benefits this had for Cozzens’s health (he lived another seven years), it unfortunately came at great expense to his work. Without drink, his creativity all but dried up and he soon stopped writing altogether.
    ..........
    1903–1978. Novelist and short-story writer. Cozzens wrote about upper-middle-class professionals whose ideals are challenged. He first gained attention when his novella
S.S. San Pedro
was awarded the Scribner’s Prize. For his short story “Total Stranger” he won an O. Henry Award. His novel
Guard of Honor
was awarded the Pulitzer.
    HALF AND HALF
    The Half and Half is perhaps better known as a Black and Tan. The nickname is derived not just from the colors, but from the regiment of British soldiers stationed in Ireland after World War I. Called the Black and Tans, their mismatched uniforms resembled the colors of the drink. Ironically, while the soldiers were a notoriously rough lot, the Half and Half is rather smooth. An easy combination of bitter and mild, you’ll find it a pleasant way to develop a taste for stout.
    8 oz. chilled lager
    8 oz. chilled stout
    Pour lager into a chilled pint glass. Pour stout over the back of a bar spoon to help it float over the “tan.” Sometimes ale is used instead of lager.
From
Ask Me Tomorrow,
1940
    W HEN HE CAME BACK he carried a stack of paper cups, a bottle of mineral water with the cork drawn, and a flask of brandy. “It’s probably poison,” he said, drawing the door closed and setting these things on the window ledge, “but it’s bound to be warm.” He separated two cups, poured an inch of brandy into one and filled the other with mineral water. “Just take a deep breath and swallow that,” he said, holding them out to her. “You’ll think it’s summer.”
    “That’s much too much,” Miss Robertson said. Her fingers touched his as she took the cups. “You’re the one who needs it,” she said. “Your hands are like ice.”
    Shivering, Francis said, “And how!” He poured brandy in another cup and tasted it. “It’s dreadful,” he said truthfully, and swallowed it.

Hart Crane

    “I’ve worn out several kidneys and several bladders already on bootleg rum, but I seem always ready to risk another.”
    A drunk, of the complete and utterly mad variety, Crane found himself late one night drinking alone at Café Select in Paris. Loaded to the gills but not with money, Crane realized he could not cover the tab. He tried to argue his way out. Other Americans in the café offered to pay the bill, but the ill-tempered owner refused. An eager though unskilled fighter, Crane decided to punch a waiter, and then another, and then a policeman. Soon more police arrived and Crane was clubbed senseless. He was dragged feet first to the station. After a week in a rat-infested cell, Crane was fined eight hundred francs and released. He left the country shortly thereafter.
    ..........
    1899–1932. Poet. Crane’s first collection,
White Buildings,
established him within the avant-garde community. His epic poem,
The Bridge,
brought wider recognition as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship.
The Broken Tower
was Crane’s last and perhaps finest work.
    MAI TAI
    Crane once remarked, “Rum has a strange power over me, it makes me feel quite innocent—or rather,