Caroline Knapp

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Caroline Knapp (November 8, 1959 – June 3, 2002) was an American writer and columnist whose candid best-selling memoir Drinking: A Love Story recounted her 20-year battle with alcoholism. She was the daughter of noted psychiatrist Peter H. Knapp, who did groundbreaking research into psychosomatic medicine.

Knapp grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts^[1] and graduated from Brown University. From 1988–95, she was a columnist for the Boston Phoenix, where her column "Out There" often featured the fictional "Alice K." In 1994, those columns were collected in her first book, Alice K's Guide to Life: One Woman's Quest for Survival, Sanity, and the Perfect New Shoes.

Knapp won wide acclaim for Drinking: A Love Story (1996), which described her life as a "high-functioning alcoholic" and remained on the New York Times best-seller list for several weeks. She followed Drinking with Pack of Two, also a best-seller, which recounted her relationship with her dog Lucille and humans' relationships with dogs in general.

Knapp started smoking in her 20s and never stopped.^[2] She was diagnosed with lung cancer in April 2002. In May 2002, she married her longtime friend and companion, photographer Mark Morelli.

She died in Cambridge of lung cancer on June 3, 2002. Two books of hers were published after her death: Appetites: Why Women Want, which described Knapp's experience with anorexia and other women's struggles with addictions, and The Merry Recluse, a collection of essays.

Bibliography

Alice K's Guide to Life: One Woman's Quest for Survival, Sanity, and the Perfect New Shoes (1994)
Drinking: A Love Story (1996)
Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs (1998)
Appetites: Why Women Want (published posthumously, 2003)
The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays (published posthumously, 2004)

References

↑ Knapp, Caroline (1966). Drinking: A Love Story. The Dial Press. p. 39. ISBN 0-385-31551-1.
↑ Thurber, Jon. "Caroline Knapp, 42; Wrote of Alcohol Struggle". Tobacco.org. Retrieved July 13, 2013.

External links

Providence Phoenix obituary, June 6, 2002
New York Times obituary, June 5, 2002
Review of Pack of Two by Susan Cheever, New York Times, July 5, 1998
Column 'The Merry Recluse'

Authority control	VIAF: 115279125 ISNI: 0000 0001 1006 6781

Persondata
Name	Knapp, Caroline
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Date of birth	November 8, 1959
Place of birth
Date of death	June 3, 2002
Place of death

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