Ernest Hemingway really loved his liquor.
He liked his Martinis dry, his Mojitos sweet, and was rumored to be drinking a quart of whiskey a day later in his life.
And now we have even more proof.
Shaun Usher — who publishes the extraordinary site Letters Of Note— tweeted out a picture of Hemingway's postscript to a letter to Ivan Kashkin, a Russian translator and critic, in 1935.
Hemingway explains his love of alcohol in a P.P.S. pic.twitter.com/FDQViJskE7
— Shaun Usher (@LettersOfNote) July 2, 2013
Here it is in full:
"P.P.S. Don't you drink? I notice you speak slightingly of the bottle. I have drunk since I was fifteen and few things have given me more pleasure. When you work hard all day with your head and know you must work again the next day what else can change your ideas and make them run on a different plane like whisky? When you are cold and wet what else can warm you? Before an attack who can say anything that gives you the momentary well being that rum does? I would as soon not eat at night as not to have red wine and water. The only time it isn't good for you is when you write or when you fight. You have to do that cold. But it always helps my shooting. Modern life, too, is often a mechanical oppression and liquor is the only mechanical relief. Let me know if my books make any money and will come to Moscow and we will find somebody that drinks and drink my royalties up to end the mechanical oppression."