A lot. For most of his life. The statement to Ivan Kashkin can be read in different ways, depending on the role (or roles) the reader believes alcohol played in Hemingway’s life. That he was an alcoholic is indisputable. The source of that alcoholism, while ultimately unimportant, remains a source of debate. Hemingway never openly admitted that he had a problem, yet he was quick to publicly point it out in others such as Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner.Alcohol served him well in his early years. He spoke enthusiastically of its idea-changing properties and actively embraced the culture of alcohol while living in Paris. In an August 1922 dispatch to the Toronto Star weekly young Hemingway captured the hedonistic lure of early-evening Paris in a discourse on apéritifs:Apéritifs, or appetizers, are those tall, bright red or yellow drinks that are poured from two or three bottles by hurried waiters during the hour before lunch and the hour before dinner, when all Paris gathers at the cafés to poison themselves into a cheerful pre-eating glow.1Later in his life, alcohol became the “giant killer,”
