Classics

Perfumes Inspired by Dead Writers

dead writers perfumeFalling down the Etsy rabbit hole is one of my internet-ish weaknesses, and upon one of these bottomless falls I came across this Dead Writers Perfume, which is made with “black tea, vetiver, clove, musk, vanilla, heliotrope, and tobacco.” The combination reminds me of an old, worn book and maybe a dude with a dusty velvet jacket using a feather pen to write an opus, and I got to wondering what perfumes based on individual dead writers might look like. A few ideas: Ernest Hemingway: Salt water, rum, coconut and lime, cigar smoke, Spanish wine F. Scott Fitzgerald: Gin, citrus, oak (prep school, amirite), in a champagne-flute shaped bottle with gold flecks in it Jane Austen: Darjeeling tea, snowdrops and pansies (flowers from her garden), meadow grass Dorothy Parker: Whiskey sour, vanilla, mandarin, white musk Edgar Allan Poe: Poppies, absinthe, sandalwood, and mold Flannery O’Connor: Church incense, soap, vanilla, ginger Jack Kerouac: Cigarettes, cheap beer, unwashed youth, patchouli, car leather the Bronte Sisters: Heather, sea air, vetiver, primrose, black tea Louisa May Alcott: Fir tree, red currant, blood orange, coffee beans Tolstoy: Vodka, musk, black tea, black peppercorn, cedar Sylvia Plath: Freshly washed linen, vanilla, daffodils, lavender Margaret Mitchell: Musk, magnolia, tea, sugar, gardenia blossoms Dickens: Cloves, tobacco, patchouli, brandy water, river water Anne Sexton: Vodka martini, tobacco, lemon verbena, peppermint   ____________________________ Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise. To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.