Saturday, February 04, 2006

Famous Absinthe Drinkers

FAMOUS ABSINTHE DRINKERS
Soon to be a directory of famous people through history who were known to have been drinkers of absinthe. Check back regularly as this section is small now, but will continue to grow.

THE ABSINTHE TIMELINE
FAMOUS ABSINTHE DRINKERS
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ERNEST HEMINGWAY (1899-1961)
Perhaps one of the most recent of famous absinthe drinkers, Hemingway drank absinthe long after it was made illegal in most parts of the world. He was known to drink absinthe in Spain, before bull-fighting and perhaps before his running with the bulls. It is also rumored that he liked to keep a few bottles around while living in the United States. References to absinthe appear in many of his famous writings, including Death In The Afternoon and For Whom The Bell Tolls. Obviously, Hemingway never became the kind of absinthe addict as others mentioned on this page, but even so, he, like so many others, ended his life in suicide in 1961.

ALFRED JARRY (1873-1907)
The famous author of the scandalous French absurdist play, Ubu Roi. Jarry was an eccentric writer who was known to drink absinthe straight. While Jarry considered his less well-known Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, 'Pataphysician' his greatest work, he will always be remembered for creating the foul and monstrous character Pere Ubu, a grotesquerie who immediately drove audiences to anger and indignation. Pere Ubu was the principal character in Ubu Roi, which outraged the French theatre patrons of the time, and made the young Jarry a cult figure. The French stage would never be the same again. Jarry admittedly used absinthe to fuse together the dream and reality, art and life.


ARTHUR RIMBAUD (1855-1891)
Arthur Rimbaud was a young poet who arrived in Paris at the age of sixteen, destitute but carrying an impressive body of work. He soon fell in with Paul Verlaine and the two became lovers. They would drink absinthe together and play cruel games with each other. Rimbaud finally broke off with Verlaine in a particularly messy incident in which Verlaine shot Rimbaud and was sentenced to prison. Rimbaud gave up absinthe and spent the later years of his life enlisted in the Dutch army and became involved in colonization and gun running. Although he had stopped writing poetry, he nevertheless ended up being known as one of France's greatest poets. He died alone (many thought he was already long since dead) from possible cancer or complications of syphilis.

Erowid: Absinthe Vault

Absinthe

COMMON & BRAND NAMES
Green Fairy; Green Goddess; La Fée Verte
EFFECTS CLASSIFICATION
Alcoholic Depressant Intoxicant
CHEMICAL NAME
Mixture
DESCRIPTION
Absinthe is a distilled spirit infused with herbs including the thujone-containing Aretmesia absinthium. Many describe its effects as significantly different than alcohol alone, but the nature of thujone's effects are much disputed. It was popularized in the late 19th century and associated with the bohemian artistic movements of the time.
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Absinthe Brasserie & Bar

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