Quotes from book
John Barleycorn

Name: John Barleycorn
Author: Jack London

John Barleycorn is an autobiographical novel by Jack London dealing with his enjoyment of drinking and struggles with alcoholism. It was published in 1913. The title is taken from the British folksong "John Barleycorn".

“The fortunate man is the one who cannot take more than a couple of drinks without becoming intoxicated. The unfortunate wight is the one who can take many glasses without betraying a sign; who must take numerous glasses in order to get the kick.”

Jack London book John Barleycorn

Source: John Barleycorn (1913), Ch. VI

“I am. I was. I am not. I never am.”

Jack London book John Barleycorn

Source: John Barleycorn (1913), Ch. I

“I was five years old the first time I got drunk.”

Jack London book John Barleycorn

Source: John Barleycorn (1913), Ch. III

“There are, broadly speaking, two types of drinkers. There is the man whom we all know, stupid, unimaginative, whose brain is bitten numbly by numb maggots; who walks generously with wide-spread, tentative legs, falls frequently in the gutter, and who sees, in the extremity of his ecstasy, blue mice and pink elephants…. The other type of drinker has imagination, vision. Even when most pleasantly jingled he walks straight and naturally, never staggers nor falls, and knows just where he is and what he is doing. It is not his body but his brain that is drunken.”

Jack London book John Barleycorn

Source: John Barleycorn (1913), Ch. II

“Men do not knowingly drink for the effect alcohol produces on the body. What they drink for is the brain-effect; and if it must come through the body, so much the worse for the body.”

Jack London book John Barleycorn

Source: John Barleycorn (1913), Ch. V

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