Writing Under The Influence: Best Drug Induced Writing In Books (PHOTOS)

We've all heard the cliche "Write what you know." Well, the following writers were addicted to drugs and, boy, did they write about it.

Writing under the influence. Whether they wrote while on drugs or just about drugs, these authors all had addiction in common. Luckily, unlike Charlie Sheen, they put their vices to good use.

Did we forget any of your favorite drug-induced work? Let us know in the comments!

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"Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Stevenson wrote the novella during a six day, six night cocaine binge.

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Stevenson wrote the novella during a six day, six night cocaine binge.

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Comments

[DanielAdler]

09:44 AM on 03/30/2011

I got one on its way! Here's a sample: http://dadsinternetwarehouse.blogspot.com/2010/08/drugs-in-post-postmodernism-h-train.html

[Baileygk]

04:59 PM on 03/24/2011

I'm reading "Queer" now from Burroughs. Interesting

[josie klapper]

10:57 AM on 03/22/2011

Everything that Hemingway ever wrote? Or doesn't alcohol count anymore?
Then there are the Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda; mixture of Peyote and Mescaline...

[kat momma]

01:09 AM on 03/20/2011

Another book about drug use is Richard Farina's novel, "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me." Also, the books written by Carlos Castenada. I think the best drug-induced writing in books award goes to Sigmund Freud, who used cocaine.

[pinkpandaparade]

04:38 PM on 03/16/2011

All of a sudden, some of these books make more sense now.

[Knothare1230]

10:16 PM on 03/12/2011

No "A Scanner Darkly"?

[Suzan S]

11:59 AM on 03/27/2011

Strangely enough, Through a Scanner Darkly was not written while he was doing amphetamines unlike most of his novels and stories.

[rob2007]

01:49 AM on 03/12/2011

86'd -- by Dan Fante. Fante's drug of choice was booze, with a little bit of coke when it was laying around. His alter ego in the novel, Bruno Dante, is also a writer who claims it's impossible to write anything of value while drunk. Tennessee Williams wrote in the mornings and waited until noon to break out the gin. Seems altering one's state works for some writers and not for others. I can report that my pothead writer friend says he gets these brilliant insights while stoned and writing, then the next day looks at the gibberish and wonders what happened to last night's masterpiece.

[PCPrincess]

11:45 AM on 03/11/2011

The Basketball Diaries - Awesome win.

[Igor13]

08:00 AM on 03/11/2011

There are to many great ones missing here.
These should be top 100 lists to even come close to hitting most of the bases.
But then again, that would take editorial excelence and why bother when you get the click without
the effort...................

[Carol Kasun Dixson]

07:58 AM on 03/11/2011

Alice in Wonderland. I thought it would be listed first!

[Pandoras Folly]

08:20 AM on 03/11/2011

fraid no drugs were involved in that one at all. except every time we watach it. Lewis Carrol was a straightedge christian whose hobby was math. He wrote the book as critique of the new higher mathmatics at the time that he thought made no sense and were ridiculous.

[josie klapper]

10:56 AM on 03/22/2011

Mind you, some of the math theories seem to be on drugs on there own...

[WSS61]

06:33 PM on 03/12/2011

Me too! Now some clod is staying Carroll didn't use drugs? HA!

[Sadbone]

07:39 AM on 03/11/2011

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was written while in a "waking dream" on Laudanum, a pain killing drug of choice by Lord Byron, Lewis Carroll, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his famous Sherlock Holmes.

[sophiemaki]

02:33 PM on 03/11/2011

exactly.percy shelly and john keats also.who knows who else.?

[seawolf77]

06:58 AM on 03/11/2011

What about the Bible and the Koran?

[jsarets]

03:21 AM on 03/11/2011

Missing Aldous Huxley.

Also "Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved: A Chemical Love Story" and "Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved: The Continuation" (PiHKAL and TiHKAL) by Dr. Alexander and Ann Shulgin.

[HippieSlug]

02:35 PM on 03/11/2011

all great books

[HBHB]

03:20 AM on 03/11/2011

Speed and Kentucky Ham.

[nicholasfromWA]

03:57 PM on 03/11/2011

I've always thought those two books were better than any his father wrote...

[JDM73]

12:48 AM on 03/12/2011

Billy was one hell of an author in his own right. "Cursed from Birth" was brilliant, too, but often difficult to read.

[ChristopherJones]

02:22 AM on 03/11/2011

Broken - William Cope Moyers (bill moyers son)