Books
The Book of Absinthe: A Cultural History
La Fee Verte (or "The Green Fairy") has intoxicated artists, poets, and writers ever since the late eighteenth century. Stories abound of absinthe's druglike sensations of mood lift and inspiration due to the presence of wormwood, its infamous "special" ingredient, which ultimately leads to delirium, homicidal mania, and death. Opening with the sensational 1905 Absinthe Murdres, Phil Baker offers a cultural history of absinthe, from its modest origins as an herbal tonic through its luxuriantly morbid heyday in the late nineteenth century. Chronicling a fascinatintly lurid cast of historical characters who often died young, the absinthe scrapbook includes Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Dowson, Aleister Crowley, Arthur machen, August Strindberg, Alfred Jarry, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Allais, Ernest Hemingway, and Pablo Picasso. Along with discussing the rituals and modus operandi of absinthe drinking, Baker reveals the recently discovered pharmacology of how real absinthe actually works
Absinthe: History in a Bottle
Few drinks conjure the cultural associations and charged atmospheres that absinthe does even now some 70 years after its ban in Europe and the U.S. Freelance writer Conrad sees absinthe "as a skeleton key to the fin de siecle's secrets." An engaging combination of art history sociology travelogue and artists' biography this clever hybrid recounts both the praise heaped upon the alcoholic beverage and the tales of destroyed creativity and absinthe-related violence that led to its prohibition. Turn-of-the-century Paris comes alive as does its expatriate society of the '20s. Oil paintings etchings and artifacts with absinthe themes by Manet Van Gogh Lautrec and others adorn the pages and quotes and anecdotes about the green liqueur by Wilde Baudelaire and Hemingway fill the well-researched text. More sober chapters include "The Origins of Ancient and Modern Absinthe" and "Absinthe and Politics" which links certain temperance movements to anti-Semitism.
The Absinthe Encyclopedia
Written by David Nathan-Maister, the book surveys the history of absinthe from earliest days right up to the present, with a particular focus on its glittering heyday in Belle Epoque France. Hundreds of full colour illustrations document every aspect of the drink - its distillation and production, the grande marques that distributed it, the bars and cafis that served it, the patrons - men and women, rich and poor, soldiers and politicians, poets, artists, lovers and boulevardiers - who drank it. Special sections describe the various drinking rituals in exhaustive detail, others deal with absinthes popularity and spread in the USA, its alleged secondary effects and the disputed syndrome of absinthism, the hard fought and ultimately successful campaign to ban it in France, Switzerland and elsewhere, and 80 years later, its modern renaissance at the dawn of the 21st century.
Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder
Absinthe - A Sip of Seduction
is a rare book addressing the bawdy reputation of the once-banned liquor.
