P Segal
In these days of our anti-vice society, only one drug remains fully
sanctioned, even at meetings of AA: a fine cup of coffee. San Francisco, an
all-too well-behaved place built on crumbling remains of that wonderfully
wild town, 'Frisco, once had more bars than any city in the country; now it
has more cafes, and an unrepentant mass of coffee achievers.Proust made it clear in Remembrance that he investigated and loved the qualities of many drugs, but his biographers say that the one he abused most regularly was the easily obtainable, and utterly delicious, caffeineated coffee. In his last years, he ate little, surviving on a diet of cafe au lait, which brought him to the end of his massive literary achievement. References to Proust's coffee habit appear in several works. Here are a few.
"...he had to prepare himself by drinking coffee-- seventeen cups of it, he said..." (Marcel Proust: A Biography by Richard H. Barker)
"Previously he'd dosed himself with caffeine only in preparation for an outing, but now he started using it when he wanted to write..." (Proust: A Biography by Ronald Hayman)
"Why had coffee survived as his only food? I never asked him. I didn't like to ask questions." (Monsieur Proust: A Memoir by Celeste Albaret)
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