We found the literary elites’ go-to cocktail orders

What dishes and drinks fuelled some of the most well-regarded texts of our times? That’s what Valerie Stivers’s newly released book, The Writer’s Table, endeavours to answer.

What might Iris Murdoch have served for supper? How did Emily Dickinson take her tea? The Writer’s Table brings together dining habits and favourite recipes from some of the world’s most beloved authors, offering a delicious glimpse into their everyday lives and kitchen rituals.

Each recipe is paired with a short introduction to the author and dish, along with clear instructions and modern ingredients, making it easy to recreate literary comfort food at home. With beautiful illustrations throughout, the book is a feast for the eyes as well as the table, making you feel closer to the writers you love.

We nabbed an extract that details some of the literary elites’ favoured cocktails and how you can make them at home.

Evelyn Waugh: The Stinger

An upper crust tipple.

• • • 50ml (1.75fl oz) cognac
    • 20ml (0.75fl oz) creme de menthe
    • Shake over ice and pour into a glass, neat

F. Scott Fitzgerald: Gin Rickey

The drink of a jazz age icon.

• 60ml (2fl oz) gin
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Top with club soda
• Serve in a highball glass

Rex Stout: Montenegro After Dark

A detective writer’s exotic sip.

• • • 60ml (2fl oz) Amaro Montenegro
    • 15ml (0.5fl oz) bourbon
    • 15ml (0.5fl oz) mezcal
    • 1 tbsp sugar syrup
    • 2 dashes orange bitters
    • 1 dash Angostura aromatic bitters
    • Mix and serve over ice

William Faulkner: Mint Julep

The taste of the American South.

• • 120ml (4fl oz) bourbon
  • 1/4 cup mint syrup
  • Sprig of mint to top
  • Serve over ice

Jean-Paul Sartre & Simone De Beauvoir: Apricot Fuzzy Naval

The drink that inspired existentialism.

• 90ml (3fl oz) apricot schnapps or apricot brandy
• 90ml (3fl oz) orange juice
• Orange slices for garnish
• Mix and serve over ice

Eve Babitz: The Bloody Mary

The LA sexpot’s slurp.

• 120ml (4fl oz) tomato juice
• 45ml (1.5fl oz) vodka
• 1tbsp lemon juice
• 2 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
• Salt and pepper
• Celery stick to garnish
• Serve over ice in a highball glass

E.B. White: Gin Martini

He drank them like others take aspirin.

• 150ml (5fl oz) 94% proof good English gin, preferably Beefeater or Tanqueray
• 11/2 capfuls Noilly Prat or Martini & Rossi dry vermouth
• 6–8 cubes hard ice, cracked by hand
• 1 olive or 1 twist lemon peel
• Pour over ice and shake
• Decant in a martini glass, add olive or lemon twist and serve

(From Life is Meals, by James Salter & Kay Salter)

Anne Sexton & Sylvia Plath: Extra-Dry Martinis

The friends-and-rival poets had a three-martini lunch.

• • • • 15ml (0.5fl oz) vermouth
      • 60–90ml (2–3fl oz) gin or vodka
      • Lemon twist or olives to serve
      • Pour vermouth over ice in a shaker; stir, let sit 20 seconds and drain
      • Pour vodka into the same shaker; stir, let sit 20 seconds
      • Serve in a martini glass

Ernest Hemingway: Daiquiri

The recipe from his favourite Floridita Bar in Havana.

• Juice of half a lime
• 1 tsp sugar
• 45ml (1.5fl oz) light rum
• Dash of maraschino
• 1 cup crushed ice
• Shake, strain and serve

(From Life is Meals, by James Salter & Kay Salter)

Truman Capote: Screwdriver

He called it his ‘orange drink.’

• 1 part vodka
• 2 parts orange juice
• Serve over ice in a highball glass, with orange slice for garnish

The Writer’s Table by Valerie Stivers, illustrated by Katie Tomlinson, is on sale now.