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A rollicking history of alcohol and its literary imbibers, from Jane Austen's beer brewing to James Joyce's passion for Guinness to E.B. White's cure for writers' block--a dry martini--by celebrated illustrator Greg Clarke and award-winning editor/art director Monte Beauchamp.

Civilization begins with distillation.--William Faulkner

Bourbon does for me what the piece of cake did for Proust.--Walker Percy

God has a brown voice, full and soft as beer.--Anne Sexton

Throughout history, there has been no greater catalyst for creativity among writers--so they claim--than a good, stiff drink. From Aristophanes' attraction to wine, to Dostoevsky's breakfast of grain vodka and brown bread, to Joan Didion's fondness for gin, stories abound of how booze has fueled and inspired our literary icons.

In this volume, cartoonist Greg Clarke and comics anthologist Monte Beauchamp take us on an unforgettable literary bar crawl. A Sidecar Named Desire is packed with historical factoids, anecdotes, booze trivia, and fascinating detours into the lives of our most storied literary personalities--along with literary-themed cocktail recipes such as Ernest Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon and Philip Larkin's Gin and Tonic set to verse.

For the literary-minded drinker--whether wine, gin, vodka, beer, whiskey, or tequila is your elixir of choice--A Sidecar Named Desire will whet your appetite. Bottoms up

Greg Clarke's illustratuions have appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Time Magazine, The Atlantic, Blab!, and Mother Jones. Books that have featured Greg's illustrations include: How to Raise Mom and Dad (Dutton), Worlds Apart (Putnam), My Fine Feathered Friend (FSF), Enchanted Night (Random House), and Masterful Marks: Cartoonists Who Change the World (Simon & Schuster), and Clarke is the recipent of three silver medals from the New York Society of Illustrators. He lives in Los Angeles, and some of his best ideas have been pulled from the ether while imbibing an IPA or a glass of Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Jonathan Cowley, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, is a British actor hailing from Eastbourne, East Sussex, but he currently calls Los Angeles home. He has narrated many audiobooks and can also be heard on both sides of the Atlantic narrating film trailers and documentaries. He is also an active television and film actor who has appeared in Grey's Anatomy, Veep, and WestWorld.

Monte Beauchamp is the founder/editor/art director of BLAB!, the award-winning anthology of cutting-edge comics, illustration, and graphic design. He is the author of Masterful Marks: Cartoonists Who Change the World (Simon & Schuster), he has served as a juror for both American Illustration and The Society of Illustrators, and in 2012 he was awarded The Society of Illustrators' prestigious Richard Gangel Art Director Award. He lives in Chicago, and favors Vodka Greyhounds.