Whiskey and literature

It is a truth universally acknowledged that whiskey goes with everything, but most especially writing (and country songs – more on that later). 

Famous drinkers: 

Ernest Hemingway. And according to a picture of his Cuba home in Vanity Fair's Oct. 2011 issue, Old Forester was one of the bottles in his living room. I don’t know if it was one of his favorites or if it was left when he died because he didn’t like it. But it is a decent whiskey and he is more than a decent writer. 

Four Roses bourbon was found at Faulkner’s home in Oxford, Miss., according to an Oct. 14 New York Times article. 

But Graham Greene left behind an entire checkers set. Truly, the guy's a genius. My mom and I were touring a favorite lunch spot for literary gentleman in London called Rules. We were there because of Dickens, but we were taken to the Graham Greene Room where there was a checkers set of nips – Scotch vs. bourbon, and the person had to drink the pieces it caught. Who was this wonderful man? I thought. It took awhile for Graham and I to finally meet – but we had an instant connection. Especially because the first book I picked up was Our Man in Havana where I came across this passage:

Wormold unfolded the draughts board. Then he arranged on the board twenty-four miniature bottles of whisky: twelve Bourbon confronted twelve Scotch.

“What is this, Mr. Wormold?”

“An idea of Dr. Hasselbacher’s. I thought we might have one game to his memory. When you take a piece you drink it.” (Part 5, Chapt. 5. Read more of the match between Wormold and Seugura under the “In Words” section)