LIST 3

20 Famous Drinkers of Absinthe

Absinthe is a greenish alcoholic brew containing the herbs anise, which gives it a licorice-like flavor, and wormwood, which gives the drinker a buzz unlike any other liquor or drug. The decadent drink became extremely prevalent in France in the 1840s. Its popularity only climbed as decades went by and the Green Fairy—as absinthe was known—spread abroad. Around 1915, it was banned in most countries, the temperance movement having convinced people that it was even more dangerous than regular booze.

Absinthe Robette (1896) by Privat Livemont

In recent times, absinthe has taken on a romantic, outlaw image for several reasons. First, it's rumored to drive drinkers insane. This is mostly myth, although if you drank it by the truckload, as with most alcohol, you'd probably end up a wreck. And eating handfuls of wormwood isn't advisable, so ingesting gigantic doses via absinthe isn't too smart, either. The second alluring factor is that the Green Fairy was the drink of choice for the Impressionists, Decadents, Symbolists, and other renegade artists, writers, and poets, particularly those of fin-de-siècle France. Finally, the fact that it really is illegal in the US and almost all of Europe makes it all the more appealing.

1. Charles Baudelaire

2. Aleister Crowley

3. Edgar Degas

4. Havelock Ellis

5. Paul Gauguin

6. Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway mixed absinthe with champagne for a concoction he called “death in the afternoon.”

7. Alfred Jarry

(the playwright who created the Absurdist movement)

8. Jack London

9. Edouard Manet

10. Eugene O'Neill

11. Pablo Picasso

12. Edgar Allen Poe

Poe sometimes drank his absinthe mixed with brandy, which must've strained the liver of even a dedicated alcoholic.

13. Pierre Auguste-Renoir

14. Arthur Rimbaud

15. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

16. Mark Twain

17. Vincent Van Gogh

18. Paul Verlaine

19. Walt Whitman

20. Oscar Wilde

Wilde penned the following lines on the successive stages of absinthe inebriation, which are quoted by everyone who writes about the Green Fairy: “The first stage is like ordinary drinking, the second when you begin to see monstrous and cruel things, but if you can persevere, you will enter in upon the third stage where you see things that you want to see, wonderful, curious things.”

Honorable Mentions

Absinthe is making a comeback of sorts. At least a dozen legal brands are available in Britain and Spain. Johnny Depp and Marilyn Manson are admitted contemporary devotees. Hunter S. Thompson and Eminem are reputed to have drunk it at least once. Although not known for sure, it's likely that Trent Reznor imbibes, as well. He's close to Manson, and the video for Nine Inch Nails' “The Perfect Drug” prominently features the green liquor. And what to make of the photograph showing then-First Lady Hillary Clinton in Prague, with a glass of absinthe in front of her? Was she drinking it, or did it just happen to be there?

Drug Quote # 3

“God is unjust because he made man incapable of sustaining the effect of coca all life long.”

–Paolo Mantegazza, nineteenth-century Italian neurologist