Drink whiskey like a literary legend

Hemmingway shared, “I've been drinking since I was 15, and few things have given me greater pleasure.”

Whiskey is one of the things that creates legends. From the Greeks to the Irish, it has evolved into an elixir that delights the taste buds and occasionally the brain. There's something grown-up, world-weary, and strong about holding a glass of brown water. From early times to the Wild West, it appears again and again in stories and modern myths. No wonder authors are fascinated by its amber hue. Here's a guide to help you drink whiskey like a literary legend this weekend.

John Steinbeck

While John Steinbeck's favorite drink was Jack Rose, he shaped the idea of ​​whiskey with his most famous book. The liqueur appears in several of Steinbeck's books, including his magnum opus “The Grapes of Wrath.” Tom Joad drinks a pint in the early chapters as he makes his way back to the family homestead. His Uncle John, on the other hand, has a known fondness for whiskey and “Jake,” an infamous Prohibition-era patent drug that consisted largely of alcohol and was known to cause nerve damage. Times may be tough, but whiskey always seems to be there.

Related Story: Breaking Down the Major Whiskey Categories

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway, the courageous hero of the Spanish Civil War and World War II and creator of The Great Gatsby, loved many drinks. While most people probably associate him with daiquiris or absinthe (not a bad choice), he was an excellent whiskey drinker. Apparently his favorite drink in real life was a scotch and soda. Seems reasonable, since it appears more often in his writings than any others – particularly The Snows of Kilimanjaro. In the autobiography “A Moveable Feast,” he drinks a lot of whiskey between rounds of gossip about F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein.

Dorothy Parker

The American poet, novelist, critic, joker and satirist helped create a moment with the Round Algonquin table. The collective wit and wisdom of creative leaders of the time exchanged contradictions, insights and stories while holding a highball. While her most quoted quip was about vodka, her passion was Scotch. As she sipped it, she felt cheerful and relaxed throughout the day, clever remarks spontaneously falling from her lips until everyone burst out laughing and she felt appreciated and loved. Dorothy never seemed drunk. But she, too, was rarely completely sober.

Here is the vodka bon mot:

“I like to drink a martini,
Two at most.
After three I'm under the table,
after four I will be under my host.”

Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming was an upper-class British intelligence officer who mingled with the powerful and connected. He gained enormous fame with the creation of his big alter ego, Jame Bond. While Bond is known for drinking a vodka martini (shaken, not stirred), the MI6 agent, like Fleming, also indulged in a lot of whiskey. Although several of the Bond films feature Talisker or Macallan, in the books he often drank bourbon, a decision apparently based on Ian Fleming's real-life fondness for American “Old Grandad” bourbon.

Related: The perfect ice cold martini

Apparently Fleming switched from gin to bourbon on the advice of his doctor, who thought it might be slightly less harmful to his ailing heart.

William Faulkner

Like his contemporary Hemingway, the Southern Gothic master drank constantly; Unlike Hemingway, who preferred to write “cold,” Faulkner’s writing was based on bourbon, corn whiskey, and mint juleps. Whiskey also plays a role in his writings: Joe Christmas, a central character in his 1932 novel Light in August, is a smuggler in the Prohibition-era South.

So next time you feel thirsty, here's how to drink whiskey like a literary legend.