William Faulkner and Alcohol

Joseph Blotner points out in his references that anyone--or many people--who came of age in the 1920's and during Prohibition Drank Heavily! People guzzled whenever they had the chance; made poisonous concoctions at home--not just wine and beer, but moonshine liquor and others. American women drank more alcohol in company with men than before.

So it wasn't just William Faulkner.

His family had a history of the men drinking too much. As a toddler and small child, he was given the last sips of the father or grandfather's sweet toddy drinks; he learned young.  His father occasionally had to be hospitalized to recover from a drinking binge.

And it was the same with William Faulkner. The pressures of life, an unsteady marriage, depression, loneliness or just plain boredom could send him into a tailspin (to use an aviation reference).  Perhaps a few times a year these binges would occur; a couple of times (so far as I am in the book), he would have drunk himself to death if not found in time.

His wife, Estelle, also tried to escape her demons by drinking. The story of that marriage is a completely different blog post. But with both parents' alcoholic problems, their daughter and Estelle's children by her first marriage had to deal with many an unpleasant scene.

Again: Sad even after all these decades. If a person is subject to depression, alcohol is not the remedy.

The problem affected his earning power during the many years he worked in Hollywood as a script writer for the studios; his ability to work was not reliable. But he worked on several famous Howard Hawks films, among many others.

He knew, worked with, drank with many of the most legendary figures of the publishing business in NY and the film production business in Hollywood from about 1933 until his death in 1962.

Would it have made a difference in his work if he'd had more control? We can never know.