Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-01-24
Liquor and Literature
BY Frederic J. Haskln

or Ics~ conn let abolition OF thn source
Of inspiration
This question has been raised ag,.in and
again since prohibition first became q
scrio,n probability, and An enormous asld
| interesting HAAS OF material on the sui,
ject has been collected. II WAS raised
agnin just the other day when Hartman
the German -Japnnepe poet, delivered q
lecture in Greenwich Village on Great
| Men With Whom I Have Imtdbcd.
| Hartmann mentioned Whitman, Poe and
Swinbnrnc ma great writer's who used
bottled inspiration and propheeied dire
literary re~lllts from prohibition. Others
take tho view that n truly creative mind
| will find expression, drunk or sober, and
say the fact that many great usn have
! choeen 10 work under the influence OF
| liquor docs not prove that they would
have been sterile If they had lived IN The
| grape juice era.
A WELL, STOCKED CELLAR.
| Still others point out that while IT u
| against the law to manufacture or eel M
| tosicatinp beverages, It IL not Illegal To
own or TO drink them, and that many
wells Of inspiration were filled before the
| prohibition law went into effect. Thus a
| famous Baltimore critic and scholar, who
| il known 10 regard Ethyl Alcohol as one
Of the museu, is known TO have sold all
Of his automobiles and diamonds, To have
| hypothecated much Of iis other property,
and 10 have invested all OF the proceeds ia
large and carefully selected stock OF
beverages, calculated on a basis OF so
many drinks per dem for the rest OF hrs
reasonable expectation OF life. Tins nc hhs
done, not i'm any self-regarding spirit, but
in order that his services 10 American
tu what tr
regards M hasty and ilI-congiclered legls-
iation.
And hrs is only one Of many fottnts Of
consolation which have been established
by thoughtful and solvent mon OF letters.
The situation for them is not a serious one
But how about the young, struggling
genius who regards liquor and literature
az two things nextricably associated, and
who has not been able TO lay by even
quart or 30 in case of sickness How VIII
his work be Affected Suppose that Poe
had never had a drink in his life. Or
Robert Burns2 While Poe's addiction 70
drinking WAS greatly exaggerated by his
early biogaphers, there is every reason
to believe thst he relied discreetly upon
alcohol as 81 mental stimulus, and there
are authorities who seriously question
whether "The Raven" could have been
written by whIte-ribbon Poe. Ger
tainIy Burns's erfam 0'Shanter," with ITS
realistic picture Of the delights and effects
of eonviviality, could not have been done
by a teetotaller, no matter how iDde-
pendent of the bottle he may have been IN
the actital business Of writing.
Those who are reyellcd by tho idea that
great and beautiful works of literature
should be associated with 30 sordid a
thing rs inebriation should remember that
creative art is very often the product OF
an abnormal condition Of some sort.
Disease is believed by modern scientists to
have been the stimulus that set many
great minds To work. A peculiarly loath-
Some one afflicted both Wagner the great
composer, and Nietzche, the philosopher
While no one can say 10 what extent 1t
affected their work, it IS known often 20
act as a mental stimulus. tuberculosis,
before 10 breaks a mans strength, rs
said bv many scientists TO be an and TO
mental effort.
OTHER PofsoNS PLAY PART.
Other poisons than alcohol have played
their part ia literature, too, and II may be
that TO some extent they viii supersede 1t.
De Quincy, in his Confessions of an
Opium Eater" has left q classical account
of one writer's experience with that drug,
and would seem also TO have demon
strated that he could get along without It,
since. when he wrote the confessions, he
claimed TO have completely given UP the
dope. Whatever stimulus 1t may have
afforded him, it certainly gave hun his
greatest subject. WiIkie Collins, the writ
er of mystery stories, who was con-
temporary and friend OF Dickens, and
whose "Woman in White" Is one OF the
worlds famous novels of its kind, IS also
said to have been drug addict.
De Quinceys confessions remind US that
a good many writers have found sub
jeot in their own or other peoples ex-
periences with red liquor. To take re-
cent example, Jack Londons John
Barleycorn, is regarded by many persons
as his greatest work. A much less known,
but equally interesting account OF q
writer's struggle with liquor was written
by VIII Lexington Comfort, VINO, hike
De Quincy, seems never TO have done his
best work until he quit his favorlte vice.
but who then found IN it a congenial and
inspiring subject.
1t would be serious omission not 20
mention in this connection the fact that
there has existed for centuries a sort ot
literary tradition which associates con-
viviality with writing Ii seems to have
begun way back in the time of Shakes
peare and the other great Ehzabethan
dramatists, who forgathered at the hier-
maid Tavern to fiirt with good liquors and
great ideas. The tradition was carried on
by DIR. Johnson and his circle, by Lamb
and Hazlitt, and has its leading modern
exponents in such meritorious scriveners
as Hillaire Belloc and Gilbert X. Chester
ton. All of these gentlemen, ancient and
modern, believe that ideas should be
thrashed out around a table set with
flagons of nut brown ale, or bumpers of
good old port, or tall tumhlers of Shandy
gaff, or thin sternmed glasses filed with
beautiful g,trnet-red sherry. They are the
gentlemen who have found good subjects
In all the beauties of booze in its multifari-
Gus forms, and in all the joys of convivial
good fellowship. Since most OF them are
dead and the rest live In England, they
are not to be. pitied but there are certain
young American writers who pattern after
them, and these are In sad plight. The
literary tradition which has inspired them
is being legislated out of existence. Soon
they will have nothing to write about ex-
cept the joys of smoking pipe, and there
are even threats that their pipes will be
taken away from them, and their screeds
In praise of nicotine denied the second
class mailing privilege.
FICTION WRITER'S HARD HIT.
Another hard-hit class of writers is
that of the professional manufacturers of
magazine fiction, to whom the inebriated