Sparrowhawk gave me the idea for this topic. It seems to me that there is indeed a correlation between good writers, writing, and pipe smoking. Quite a few of the great writers of the 20th century were indeed pipe smokers. Their reasons for smoking a pipe, however are probably quite different than a current writer who smokes a pipe. For them, I'm sure they smoked a pipe or began smoking a pipe simply because it was more common in their time. They took up the pipe, found they enjoyed it, and it relaxed them and helped them focus. In a way, when writing, it may very well have become a tool as important as their pen, paper, and typewriter. I know that for me, it does indeed help me relax and focus, and therefore helps my writing.
For the modern writer, I think the reason they smoke a pipe is much the same as the writers of yesteryear. But with one difference. Today pipe smoking isn't as widespread as it once was. Often someone's story is they began smoking a pipe because of a favorite writer, or a story that writer created. They of course stick with it, because they find that the pipe has become a tool, that in one way or another helps them in their writing. I'll admit, a few years ago when I first took up the pipe, a large part of my reasoning was this... Tolkien, Robert Jordan, C.S. Lewis, many of my favorite writers or other great writers smoked a pipe. Perhaps I should do the same. And so I bought a pipe, imagining myself the next Tolkien, or Hemingway, or whoever else was a great writer. Of course I can't hold a candle to any of them, but they were indeed onto something. When I'm sitting at my desk while writing, or reading what I've written, or just dreaming up my next chapter in my mind, the pipe has indeed become a tool very much as important as my laptop.
So what say you?
