I just received the following e-mail message from Mr. Hacker:
Hi Tim, and thank you for bringing this forum link to my attention.
Who knew all this was going on? (As you can tell, I don’t follow or participate in forums - nor do I “tweet” and I am not on Facebook, so please feel free to disseminate this info on the forum. I should mention that because I travel extensively on assignment, I am unable to answer emails in a timely manner.
However, I am taking the liberty of copying another fellow pipesmoker and reader of my books, who emailed me with the same question regarding Perique.
When I began researching material for my first edition of The Ultimate Pipe Book back in the 1980’s, it was in “B.C." - Before Computers. Therefore, all of my research was done first hand, as personal computers simply did not exist back then. There was no jumping on the internet (which also didn’t exist back then), as most individuals do today, thus becoming "instant experts,” although I must point out that even today there are no fact checkers on the internet, so what you read may or may not be true.
And contrary to what one Forum member wrote, researching The Ultimate Pipe Book was not simply a matter of going to the library and checking out books. For one thing., there were very few books on pipesmoking back then, and for another, by doing such a thing, I would merely be perpetuating what someone else had written - and it might not have been correct.
Consequently, all of my research was original (i.e. first hand), my notes were handwritten, and my interviews were recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder (anybody remember those?)
Plus the manuscripts for my original books were typed on a typewriter - not on a computer keyboard. As I said, personal computers were not in use back then. These were technologically prehistoric times.
Fortunately at that time, I was extremely fortunate to have been able to meet, get to know, and interview such stalwart individuals in the pipe world as Alfred Dunhill’s grandson Richard, John Adler of Comoy’s, BBB, GBD, etc., who also introduced me to many of the old time factory pipemakers, Ed Kolpin of The Tinder Box, Bill Ashton Taylor, Ole Larsen, Alf Sasieni, plus clay pipe makers such as Gordon Pollock and Art Van Der Want, and many, many others, most now long gone, but all of whom are mentioned throughout those first editions of my pipe books. In addition, I was able to visit now long-gone or vastly changed pipe shops such as Dunhill’s in Beverly Hills and London, Astley’s, the original J.J.Fox, etc.
All of this leads up to the two differing recipes for Perique. During the initial editions of The Ultimate Pipe Book and the British and German editions (Die Kunst Pfeife zu rauchen) as well, there was only one family making this tobacco in a single Louisiana parish (St. James), and the recipe I quoted in my book came directly from family member Percy Martin. After his death his son Ray took over production, and may have changed the recipe at that time. Not totally sure about this, as all of my original notes are in storage, where I suppose one day they will be discovered and possibly auctioned off to anybody who is still interested in such things.
Eventually the hardcover edition of TUPB went out of print and a few years later I decided to write an updated softcover edition, Pipesmoking, A 21st Century Guide, which is still in print, and can be obtained from Amazon.com. By this time the Louisiana tobacco company had been sold and a new owner had taken over the production of Perique (which I was glad to hear, as this is a very important and historic tobacco, and I would hate to see it disappear from U.S. soil). Somewhere along this timeframe, the recipe had definitely changed, so I included the slightly revised recipe for Perique in the newer edition of Pipesmoking - A 21st Century Guide.
I hope this clears up the “mystery."
And as to the Forum writer who asked, “Who is this Hacker guy?” and who obviously had no inclination to Google me, I am a full-time professional author and magazine writer (Robb Report, robbreort.com, RobbVices.com, cigarworld.com, etc.) who has been a lifelong pipe and cigar smoker, and consequently, I write about these topics, along with other subjects with which I am personally acquainted (such as whiskies and wines). My first nationally published piece - when I was 17 years old (a long, long time ago) - was a western short story entitled The Cowboy And The Steer, which won Grand Prize in the Boy’s Life Writing Contest. I have been writing professionally ever since and currently am contributing editor for a number of lifestyle magazines and have authored additional books besides those on pipes.
I should mention that the anonymous nature of the internet seems to prompt certain individuals to make negative statements about people that they would never say to those people in person. Thus, I don’t take being called a fibber as "tongue-in-cheek." It is insulting, and I view it as a matter of arrogant rudeness.
But thanks Tim and Tom, for your emails on this topic, and for allowing me an opportunity to respond to the Forum, if you will be so kind as to post it.
Happy Smoking,
- Richard Carleton Hacker
richardcarletonhacker.com
Senior Contributing Editor:
Robb Report, robbreport.com, RobbVices, Collection Magazine,
The Tasting Panel,
Somm Journal
cigarworld.com
Author:
The Ultimate Cigar Book;
Pipesmoking-A 21st Century Guide;
Rare Smoke-The Ultimate Guide to Pipe Collecting
Member:
Master of the Quaich
Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne
Confrérie des Maîtres-Pipiers de Saint-Claude
