Whether they be bad boys (or bad girls), dirty old men or just legendary party animals, there’s no denying that the literary set knows how to get down. From dance parties to book parties to whatever’s going on in that car, writers are adept at letting off steam, and so this year, we thought we’d get a little New Year’s celebration inspiration from a few of our favorite authors. And hey, if you’re still trying to figure out your signature cocktail at this late hour, you can model that on your favorite writer too. After the jump, raise a glass with everyone from Ernest Hemingway to Rita Dove to Nora Ephron. Happy New Year’s Eve, everybody.
Ernest Hemingway holding court in Paris. Photo via.
James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry cutting a rug. Photo via.
Allen Ginsberg at his 39th birthday party. Photo via.
Notorious party boy William S. Burroughs with a drink and a slice of birthday cake. Photo via.
Rita Dove busting a move. Photo via.
Truman Capote at the famous Black and White Ball, 1966. Photo via.
The founding members of the Algonquin Round Table at a dignified book party in 1938. That’s Dorothy Parker over there on the right, along with Fritz Foord, Wolcott Gibbs, and Frank Case. Alan Campbell, St. Clair McKelway, Russell Maloney and James Thurber stand behind them. Photo via.
Norman Mailer with Steve Kroft, at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, 1995. Photo via.
Dirty old Charles Bukowski living the high life.
Kinglsey Amis engaged in complicated clinks. Photo via.
Obviously: Hunter S. Thompson on a joy ride with John Cusack, Johnny Depp, and a willing blow-up doll. Photo via.
Carson McCullers kissing Marilyn Monroe, while Isak Dinesen looks on, 1959. Photo via.
Nora Ephron chatting up Woody Allen at a party. Photo via.
Photo Credit: Paul Marsan Dornac
Paul Verlaine drinking a hearty glass of absinthe in the Café François 1er in 1892.
Zadie Smith and Nick Laird with bubbly. Photo via.
Arthur Miller dancing with Ms. Monroe. Photo by Eve Arnold via.
Jonathan Franzen, looking left out. Photo via.
Photo Credit: Library of Congress
Tennessee Williams with “birthday” cake for the 20th anniversary of the opening of The Glass Menagerie.
Marcel Proust at a garden party. Photo via.
Once more with feeling: Ernest Hemingway (well, he did party way more than these other people). Plaza del Castillo, Jul 1959. Photo via.