Equivocal spirits

"Of the eight American Nobel Prize winners in literature, three--Sinclair Lewis, Eugene O'Neill and William Faulkner--were alcoholic drinkers, and two--Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck--were hard drinkers. Almost all critical comment about these writers has treated their drinking habits a somehow separate from their work. Thomas Gilmore argues that the result is neither good biography nor good literary criticism. He shows how the drinking and the work can each shed light on the other. Although readers and critics acknowledge that many modern writers tend to be heavy drinkers, [title] is…