One of the best of the T'ang dynasty poets in seventh-century China, Li Po wrote many poems about drinking.

alcohol has two functions. First of all, it brings friends together to sing, to reminisce

Second, it acts as a muse, a way to relax and release the poet into fantasies and meditations

After smoking opium, Coleridge fell asleep, and when he awoke he was on fire with images.

The result is one of the wildest, most puzzling poems of all time.

Like many famous writers, Hemingway battled alcoholism all his life. In The Sun Also Rises, one of his best novels, almost every character drinks continually.

Sartre apparently was a big ingester of mescaline to get him, er, up to speed.

Burroughs was

heroin addict