Understated, Economical, and Self-Destructive

A man's man

Photo by Arturo Rey on Unsplash

Not to romanticize unhealthy relationships with alcohol, however… did you know Ernest Hemingway, Nobel Prize-winning author of several American classics, was a passionate lover of Absinthe -the elixir made of medicinal and culinary herbs, plants, and flowers steeped in high-proof spirits?

Noted for his competitiveness, masculinity, adventurous lifestyle, and lurid prose, he was a journalist, short-story writer, novelist, and war reporter whose exploits served as the backdrop for his works. A big game hunter, bullfighter, and fisherman who survived two plane crashes, he was notoriously fond of heavy drinking and is rumored to start each morning with three bottles of wine.

His best-regarded work, For Whom the Bell Tolls, graphically depicts the brutality of war, borrows its title from a series of meditations and prayers on health, pain, and sickness, and has been banned in the US since 1941, and in several other countries since 1973.

Often considered impetuou…