{"id":56919,"date":"2013-07-29T15:15:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T19:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=56919"},"modified":"2018-12-04T13:13:07","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T18:13:07","slug":"gin-cigarettes-and-desperation-the-carson-mccullers-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/29\/gin-cigarettes-and-desperation-the-carson-mccullers-diet\/","title":{"rendered":"Gin, Cigarettes, and Desperation: The Carson McCullers Diet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.drunkard.com\/issues\/56\/56-fi-carson.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Modern Drunkard<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Carson liked sherry with her tea, brandy with her coffee, and her purse with a large flask of whiskey. Between books, when she was neither famous nor monied, she claimed she existed almost exclusively on gin, cigarettes, and desperation for weeks at a time. During her most productive years she employed a round-the-clock drinking system: she\u2019d start the day at her typewriter with a ritual glass a beer, a way of saying it was time to work, then steadily sip sherry as she typed. If it was cold and there was no wood for the stove, she\u2019d turn up the heat with double shots of whiskey. She concluded her workday before dinner, which she primed with a martini. Then it was off to the parties, which meant more martinis, cognac, and, oftentimes, corn whiskey. Finally, she ended the day as it began, with a bedtime beer.<\/p>\n<p>Her recuperative abilities are the stuff of legend\u2014she would rise the following morning, shake off her hangover like so much dust, down her morning beer, and get back to work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And thank you, <a href=\"http:\/\/michelledean.tumblr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Michelle Dean<\/a>, for drawing to our attention!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Modern Drunkard: Carson liked sherry with her tea, brandy with her coffee, and her purse with a large flask of whiskey. Between books, when she was neither famous nor monied, she claimed she existed almost exclusively on gin, cigarettes, and desperation for weeks at a time. During her most productive years she employed a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[7493,3529,11482],"class_list":["post-56919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-alcohol","tag-carson-mccullers","tag-modern-drunkard"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gin, Cigarettes, and Desperation: The Carson McCullers Diet by Sadie Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"July 29, 2013 \u2013 From Modern Drunkard: Carson liked sherry with her tea, brandy with her coffee, and her purse with a large flask of whiskey. 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Between books, when she was\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/29\/gin-cigarettes-and-desperation-the-carson-mccullers-diet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-29T19:15:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-12-04T18:13:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/29\/gin-cigarettes-and-desperation-the-carson-mccullers-diet\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/29\/gin-cigarettes-and-desperation-the-carson-mccullers-diet\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Gin, Cigarettes, and Desperation: The Carson McCullers Diet\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-29T19:15:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-04T18:13:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/29\/gin-cigarettes-and-desperation-the-carson-mccullers-diet\/\"},\"wordCount\":201,\"commentCount\":19,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"alcohol\",\"Carson McCullers\",\"Modern Drunkard\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Arts &amp; Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/29\/gin-cigarettes-and-desperation-the-carson-mccullers-diet\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/29\/gin-cigarettes-and-desperation-the-carson-mccullers-diet\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/29\/gin-cigarettes-and-desperation-the-carson-mccullers-diet\/\",\"name\":\"Gin, Cigarettes, and Desperation: The Carson McCullers Diet by Sadie Stein\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-29T19:15:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-04T18:13:07+00:00\",\"description\":\"July 29, 2013 \u2013 From Modern Drunkard: Carson liked sherry with her tea, brandy with her coffee, and her purse with a large flask of whiskey. 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