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

fat man began to fill two glasses from bottle and siphon. . . .
    “We begin well, sir,” the fat man purred, turning with a proffered glass in his hand. “I distrust a man that says when. If he’s got to be careful not to drink too much it’s because he’s not to be trusted when he does.”

Lillian Hellman

    “Drinking made uninteresting people matter less and, late at night, matter not at all.”
    As far as drinking goes, it would have been difficult for anyone to go toe-to-toe (or elbow-to-elbow) with Dashiell Hammett, but Hellman certainly gave it her best. Hungover and facing the Broadway opening of
The Children’s Hour,
Hellman got blind drunk on brandy. Waking early the next morning and hungover yet again, she got herself a cold beer and telephoned Hammett, who was living in Los Angeles. She reached his secretary. Two days later Hellman would realize: (1) at the time she called it was three A.M. in California, and (2) Hammett had no secretary. She took the first plane out, got drunk en route, and went directly to Hammett’s house. She smashed his bar to pieces and flew back to New York. Hellman knew where to kick a man.
    ..........
    1905–1984. Playwright, memoirist, and screenwriter. Hellman received instant recognition with her first play,
The Children’s Hour.
Her best-known work,
The Little Foxes,
was adapted to screen and nominated for nine Academy Awards.
An Unfinished Woman,
part of her memoir trilogy, won a National Book Award.
    DAIQUIRI
    Invented in Cuba, the Daiquiri comes from the small village of Daiquiri, just outside of Santiago, where the Bacardi rum distillery was founded. Nothing to do with the frozen concoctions now trumpeted, the traditional cocktail was simple and not too sweet. Hemingway liked his doubled. His good pal Hellman, who often critiqued his writing, surely took his advice when it came to cocktails.
    2 oz. light rum
    1 oz. lime juice
    ¾ oz. simple syrup
    Lime wheel
    Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice cubes. Shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lime wheel.
From
Maybe: A Story,
1980
    I N THOSE DAYS THERE WAS ONLY ONE standard remedy for a hangover. My hangover had, by this time, on the wet grass, turned to shivers. I stumbled, half crawled back to my room, managed a shower, and sent for the remedy: a raw egg, a double sherry and two teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce. Then I slept for a few hours, heard the phone ringing and, several times, loud knocks on the door. When I woke up, I vomited, which is what the remedy was supposed to do if you were in good health. After you were sick the custom was to wait a while and then you drank a few beers which tasted fine and you could move for a few hours until it was time for a regular drink.

Ernest Hemingway

    “A man does not exist until he is drunk.”
    Hemingway was not one for pretension, literary or otherwise. In a famous incident at Costello’s, a New York writers’ haunt, he found just the opportunity to make those feelings known. After drinking in back with friends, he passed John O’Hara at the bar. O’Hara was carrying an Irish blackthorn walking stick (shillelagh) and Hemingway began to mock him for it. Defensively, O’Hara claimed that it was “the best piece of blackthorn in New York.” Hemingway immediately bet him fifty dollars that he could break it with his bare hands. Then in one swift move he smashed the walking stick against his own head, snapping it in half. The broken pieces hung over Costello’s bar for many years.
    ..........
    1899–1961. Novelist and short-story writer. Hemingway was one of the principal figures of the Lost Generation. As a cub reporter for the
Kansas City Star,
he developed a minimalist style. With his second novel,
The Sun Also Rises,
he immediately became a literary star. In 1954 Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
    MOJITO
    Hemingway is associated with any number of cocktails, but perhaps none more so than the