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Friday

When it comes to writers who liked to drink, positively everyone knows that Ernest Hemingway, Charles Bukowski, William Faulkner, and Lillian Hellman were just lousy with booze. But the annals of literary sousedom don’t end there. Did you know that H.L. Mencken brewed his own beer at home? Or that John Steinbeck and Robert Benchley would have drunken pool parties in which guests would attempt to retrieve empty wine bottles thrown to the pool’s bottom? Or that when Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath went out to drink as students, they would park illegally in a loading zone, figuring that they were going to get loaded? All those tidbits can be found in Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers, a compendium of literary lore, alcohol-themed excerpts, and, of course, bar recipes, courtesy of writer Mark Bailey and illustrator Edward Hemingway (yes, he’s his grandson). BYOB when they appear at 7 p.m. at Olsson’s Books & Records, 1307 19th St. NW. Free. (202) 785-1133. (Mike DeBonis)