Pipe Smoking In Books

It's hard to beat Sherlock Holmes for pipe smoking. Many of us were inspired to take up the hobby based on Holmes.

The Hangman's Daughter is a trilogy of books about a pipe smoking 17th century hangman, who is also the town herbalist and some-times detective. The cool thing about this series is that the author has done his homework. Not only does the characters smoke and drink coffee, but there is much revealed about where and how these ancient Bavarians would have gotten these exotic imports.
It's also interesting that in this time some towns set up laws that allowed pipe smokers to be beaten, which reminds us that smoking-Nazis are not a new thing. I totally recommend this trilogy, if you like European history. There are tons of cultural tid-bits hidden within a great nail-biter of a story.

Any major piece of European (mainly English, French, and Russian) literature from the 1800-1920's usually has several references to pipe smoking. The Drinking Den (L'assommoir) by Emile Zola is riddled with pipe smoking references (but it is a really really sad book). I'm pretty sure Hardy, Dickens, Balzac, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Hesse, Conrad, Greene, Joyce, and many others all have these references as well (some more than others). Pipe smoking was the major method of smoking in this time period.

A. Bertram Chandler was a pipe-smoking Aussie merchant ship captain. His character, John Grimes, smoked a pipe as he dealt with all sorts of things in Chandler's extensive series of sf yarns about him.

In "Rainbow Six" by Tom Clancy, one of the members of the elite anti-terrorist unit lights up a pipe at the conclusion of each mission. This becomes an important plot point when the book's antagonist uses this information to track the activities of Rainbow Six.

Twenty Six Days by Regis McCafferty is a fun if not particulary complex piece of Holmes-style Victorian detective fiction. The main character smoke his pipes a lot and smokes some brands of tobacco you'll be familiar with.

George Simenon's Inspector Maigret novels are riddled with pipes smoking, the Commisaire de Police Judiciaire de Paris lighting, filling and fidgeting with a pipe on stakeout, during questioning or brainstorming. One novel even opens with a group of detectives choosing pipes they want that were sent over from a factory in St. Claude. If you have not read them, drop what you are doing and find one. Maigret is the greatest pipe smoking detective in literature.
Also, you can't forget good old Philip Marlowe often smoked a pipe...I think he was more attached to his bourbon, but who can guzzle bourbon without a smoke in good conscience.
It has been a while, but I seem to remember Richard Hannay in Buchan's stories smoking one as well.

In "Rainbow Six" by Tom Clancy, one of the members of the elite anti-terrorist unit lights up a pipe at the conclusion of each mission. This becomes an important plot point when the book's antagonist uses this information to track the activities of Rainbow Six.

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Interesting side note to this, John McAleese who was the inspiration for the Eddie Price character in Rainbow Six although not a pipe smoker in real life led the assault team on the Iranian Embassy when terrorists took it over in the early 80's. I had the honour of meeting John in 1990 when doing some training with his unit in Wales. An old school tough guy with a heart of gold. Also an interesting post script I had the honour of serving with his son Paul who was a Sergeant with the 2nd Battalion Rifles while working with a Private Security Contractor in a sandbox a few countries away. Sadly both John and Paul are gone now but they leave a proud heritage of service to their country. I was proud to have known them and served with them. I will always read the paragraphs about Eddie Price with fond memories.

From Chapter One of Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth:
The truth being told, however, the only article really attracted to my uncle's nose was tobacco.



From Chapter Three:
At the end of an hour, my allotted task was done. How to pass the time? I began by lighting my pipe. Like all other students, I delighted in tobacco; and, seating myself in the great armchair, I began to think.
Fitzy: The moment Ahab throws his pipe away (for no other reason than it was behaving like a pipe) was the moment I realized Ahab is nuts.

May I recommend two books: Twenty Six Days, A Mystery of Victorian England, and The Sherlock Holmes Adventure by noted pipe smoker and author Regis McCafferty, staring the indelible Holmesian protoge Joshua Pitt. You won't be disappointed.

#1 on Kas "s recommendation , very good read.

Here's a blurb from Regis McCafferty's "The Sherlock Holmes Adventure":
"He turned up the light, filled and lit a pipe, and then turned to the note from Sherlock Holmes. It read:"Pitt-Inspector MacLeish paid me a visit this evening to discuss the particulars of a murder that occurred at Coldfall Lodge, Tetherdown. Mr. Artimus Weatherill was brutally murdered and property taken, including a fair amount in sovereigns. There are some particulars regarding this event that puzzle MacLeish and since I am returning to Glasgow in the morning to testify in the Seamus Walsh affair, I took the liberty of telling the Inspector you would look into it in my absence. If your appointments will give you the morning, MacLeish will be at Coldfell Lodge at seven o'clock. Best regards, Holmes".
From Amazon: "Enter Joshua Pitt, inquiry agent, chess playing opponent of Dr. Watson, and one-time Baker Street Irregular who has set up shop little more than a block away on Baker Street. A young man in his late twenties, he is rarely without a smoking pipe at hand, a good blend of tobacco, and prefers strong Assam tea and Highland whiskey. His cases are as much adventure as mystery, and the reader is invited along for the ride, in a hansom, of course".
Priceless. McCafferty gives Conan Doyle a run for his money, in my humble opinion.

Several caricatures smoke pipes in Andrew M. Greeley novels.

I never considered whether pipe smoking in books might have influenced my behavior, but I was pretty young when I first read the Sherlock Holmes stories and when I began my sojourn through the works of Mark Twain ... and was only college age when taking up pipe smoking ...
Twain references both pipe and cigar smoking in a great many of his works and his enjoyment of both is very evident ... Holmes, of course, always thought better when pondering various problems, even going so far as to tell Watson that "this is quite a three pipe* problem" ...
* the number varies in different stories

Are there any other works of fiction that come to mind that mentions pipe smoking?

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If you want references to pipe smoking, try reading any of the great novels written a hundred years ago or so. Pipe smoking was common back then.
I'd suggest starting with any of the novels of John Buchan. They are public domain and available for free.

The Thirty Nine Steps is an exciting read.

Just do a Google search on any pipe related phrase like, "filled my pipe", and choose to search in Books. You'll find lots of results.

Just do a Google search on any pipe related phrase like, "filled my pipe", and choose to search in Books. You'll find lots of results.

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I've always enjoyed doing this, many good references pop up.
Here's a few:
"Bohr sat down, lit his pipe, and started talking. He forgot to draw, lit the pipe again, and so on until there was a mountain of matches right in front of him. He talked about the discovery that the square root of two cannot be an integer or a fraction."

Killing Time: The Autobiography of Paul Feyerabend
"He fills his pipe. VLADIMIR: (vehemently). Let's go! POZZO: I hope I'm not driving you away. Wait a little longer, you'll never regret it. ESTRAGON: (scenting charity). We're in no hurry. POZZO: (having lit his pipe). The second is never so sweet ."

Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts
"A man wanted a pipe. ... Get me a two-ounce tin of Capstan Full. ... "Keep the change, sonny," said Fenton, and, feeling the satisfaction that only a pipe-smoker can experience when about to load up his favourite briar..."

Danger's Bright Eyes
"I smoked Balkan Sobranie. ... Did the pipe help me score? ... Unfortunately, while I knew about how to get a pipe going, even in a rainstorm (pack tight and smoke with the bowl upside down), I didn't know how to do the same for a woman."

Campus Sexpot: A Memoir
"Known as Wedgey, because his initials were W.D.G., he was a baggy pipe smoker: clever, witty and, as it seemed to me then, erudite and ... he favoured a brand of tobacco called Balkan Sobranie that smelt like an outdoor cremation."

Home
"You've been walking for threequarters of an hour? I didn't think you had it in you. Mark laughed and began to fill a pipe. - Where'd you get that? - Mine. I thought I'd give it an airing. - What are you smoking? - Three Nuns. - It's got a good pong."

The Dwarfs: A Novel
"Lying in a rack by his bedside was his beloved pipe. Grandad made smoking into an art form. Poking and cleaning with pipe cleaners, tapping out old ash then filling his pipe with Condor Sliced were all carried out with great assiduity."

Pies Were for Thursdays
"He was certainly not going to park himself on a hard wooden stool for hours on end, surrounded by piss-taking teenagers, most of whom persistently attempting to shove something other than St Bruno in his pipe, whilst an offensive cacophony as far removed as possible from sea shanties or The Seekers ripped his eardrums to buggery."

Pick Your Own Strawberries

James bond is an oft overlooked pipe smoking adventure. M is seldom mentioned without his pipe, and the packing, lighting and smoking thereof. For me, M proved to be a much bigger inspiration to smoke a pipe than the Lord of the Rings or Sherlock Holmes. Sitting in a grey building on a rainy day thinking about the sea and the future of England just seems to me a much more English and therefore more wholesome activity than solving crimes or running around middle earth. I can just imagine M in his woody and leathery office smoking a bowl of presbyterian or some other equally dreary tobacco.
Here's the late great Bernard Lee as M smoking a rather tasty looking billiard.