Novels Featuring Pipe Smoking - Post Your Favourites Here

[stanlaurel]

I'm a big reader of Dickens novels. I almost always have one in progress.
Pipes are an ever present part of Dickens' England.

 

[newbroom]

Whenever an author writes about something personally soothing and sensory I always find it makes me smile and feel that I've somehow shared in his or her's delight. Common indulgences like tobacco, coffee, baked bread, a glass of spirits, or the contemplative nature of a campfire are always a welcome passage within the story. They humanize both the author and the reader, and the characters involved.

We've got some terrific writers right here on the board, including at least one Sci Fi Guy, who I know have, will or should incorporate our main topics of pipes and tobacco, and perhaps share with us a glimpse of their imaginations.

Great topic.

Klause? shikano53? mso489? and so many more of you folks who always seem to share a facility with prose and humor.

I am sorry I can't remember all the names of the contributors right now who have made my day with comments that are humorous and descriptive. You know who you are. :worship:

 

[ericthered]

My favorite fantasy series, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time has a few allusions to pipe tobacco and pipe smoking. Since I'm a fan I'll call it a tribute to Tolkein's LOTR, a harsher critic would call it derivative, but the main characters' backwater hometown is internationally known within the series for it's high quality "Two River's tobac". The last time I read through the series was before I had picked up the pipe, so actual references to pipe smoking didn't stand out to me, so I've got to read through again to try to find them.

 

[maxx]

Moby Dick - chapter 30: The Pipe

When Stubb had departed, Ahab stood for a while leaning over the bulwarks; and then, as had been usual with him of late, calling a sailor of the watch, he sent him below for his ivory stool, and also his pipe. Lighting the pipe at the binnacle lamp and planting the stool on the weather side of the deck, he sat and smoked.
In old Norse times, the thrones of the sea-loving Danish kings were fabricated, saith tradition, of the tusks of the narwhale. How could one look at Ahab then, seated on that tripod of bones, without bethinking him of the royalty it symbolized? For a Khan of the plank, and a king of the sea and a great lord of Leviathans was Ahab.
Some moments passed, during which the thick vapor came from his mouth in quick and constant puffs, which blew back again into his face. “How now,” he soliloquized at last, withdrawing the tube, “this smoking no longer soothes. Oh, my pipe! hard must it go with me if thy charm be gone! Here have I been unconsciously toiling, not pleasuring- aye, and ignorantly smoking to windward all the while; to windward, and with such nervous whiffs, as if, like the dying whale, my final jets were the strongest and fullest of trouble. What business have I with this pipe? This thing that is meant for sereneness, to send up mild white vapors among mild white hairs, not among torn iron-grey locks like mine. I’ll smoke no more-”
He tossed the still lighted pipe into the sea. The fire hissed in the waves; the same instant the ship shot by the bubble the sinking pipe made. With slouched hat, Ahab lurchingly paced the planks.

http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-dick/679/chapter-30-the-pipe/

 

[calabashed]

For the SciFi fans, "The Mote in God's Eye", and its sequel "The Gripping Hand" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. This is Space Opera meets mid-20th century hard SciFi a la Heinlein. In my opinion it's the best "first contact" story of last century. Heinlein himself said of it, "possibly the greatest piece of science fiction I have ever read". Both books feature pipe smoking characters, and the whole first section of the second novel revolves around the search for the source of rare and precious "opal meerschaum", of which the natives of backwater world Maxroy's Purchase make the finest smoking pipes in the galaxy.
@Maxx Thanks for posting, I remember that passage did more than anything else to help me understand Ahab's mindset as the voyage progressed.

 

[aldecaker]

Stephen King, 11/22/63. Jake Epping's back-in-time pal Deke Simmons smokes Prince Albert.

 

[sparrowhawk]

I don't know of any pipe smokers except for Sherlock Holmes, but I'm working on a story and a novel where both protagonists smoke Petersons.

 

[tslex]

The Mote in God's Eye", and its sequel "The Gripping Hand" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. , , , the best "first contact" story of last century. Heinlein himself said of it, "possibly the greatest piece of science fiction I have ever read".. . .

You know what, I think it is time to re-read those two -- again, for probably the fifth time. Just wonderful books. And RAH was right, or at least not far wrong.

 

[stickframer]

Great stuff here. It sounds like 'Two Solitudes' is right up my alley.

 

[pipebuddy]

That's a great subject. My "to get" list for good books is growing.
Thanks for starting that one, Pruss and thanks to those who contribute to it.
I forgot to mention: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. I was 13 when I read it. After rading it, I asked my parents if I could get a pipe and some tobacco. :D

 

[pruss]

@calabashed I'm going to have to read both of those. Thanks!
-- Pat

 

[maxx]

Found a photo of Charles Dickens' pipe -

http://yaleuniversity.tumblr.com/post/42534055264/charles-dickens-meerschaum-pipe-and-quill-pen

 

[maxx]

From Dickens' The Pickwick Papers:
Chapter XXVII SAMUEL WELLER MAKES A PILGRIMAGE TO DORKING, AND BEHOLDS HIS MOTHER-IN-LAW

Wery glad to see you, Sammy,' said the elder Mr. Weller, 'though how you've managed to get over your mother-in-law, is a mystery to me. I only vish you'd write me out the receipt, that's all.'

'Hush!' said Sam, 'she's at home, old feller.' 'She ain't vithin hearin',' replied Mr. Weller; 'she always goes and blows up, downstairs, for a couple of hours arter tea; so we'll just give ourselves a damp, Sammy.'

Saying this, Mr. Weller mixed two glasses of spirits-and-water, and produced a couple of pipes. The father and son sitting down opposite each other; Sam on one side of the fire, in the high-backed chair, and Mr. Weller, senior, on the other, in an easy ditto, they proceeded to enjoy themselves with all due gravity.

http://www.victorianlondon.org/etexts/dickens/pickwick-0027.shtml

 

[stickframer]

Joseph Conrad "Heart of Darkness." The main character smokes a pipe. It's historical fiction but written in 1899.

Heart of Darknessretells the story ofMarlow's job as an ivory transporter down the Congo. Through his journey, Marlow develops an intense interest in investigating Kurtz, an ivory-procurement agent, and Marlow is shocked upon seeing what the European traders have done to the natives. Joseph Conrad's exploration of the darkness potentially inherent in all human hearts inspired the 1979 film, Apocalypse Now, although the setting was moved to Vietnam.

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/h/heart-of-darkness/heart-of-darkness-at-a-glance

 

[davet]

Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher, the movie Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford was based on this, although not very well IMHO. Lots of plugs smoked and chewed in this.One of my all time favorites, still looking for a first edition.

 

[aldecaker]

Stickframer, how could I have forgotten Conrad? I read "The Black Mate" in a collection of short stories, checked out his other works, and have been hooked ever since. Thank you for reminding me of some great writing I need to go back and revisit!

 

[puffndave]

Thanks for this post, I'll be adding those on your list to mine.
There's a couple of books which I've recently taken to by James Michener, Caravan and The Source. Also, a great tale of pipe-smoking Irish storyteller, Ireland, by Frank Delaney.
Then there's Mark Twain, and perhaps anybody who wrote from his generation...

 

[puffndave]

Twain, Dickens, Caroll, Verne, Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), Tolkien, Michener - no matter what the content is, if it was written before 1980, or is centered around events before then, it will probably make you feel like lighting up a bowl!

 

[edwinbaz]

This is a great post! I want to mention "Otto er et næsehorn" (Otto is a Rhino) by Ole Lund Kirkegaard. Not a novel, but a children's book. I remember reading the spanish version when I was 8. The owner of the building where the action takes place was a kindly man named Mr. Holm. If memory serves me, he was described as having a pipe which he never took out of his mouth that he called his "nose warmer" which in spanish is "calienta nariz", a term which the 8 year old me just found hilarious. 20 years later, and now a pipe smoker, I have a fondness for that character which I found to be such a nice fellow during my childhood. Curiously, I think of him as an apt characterisation of most people I've met here in the forums: kindly, helpful, always willing to give advice, still retaining a spark of youthfulness, etc.

I looked online and just found out they did a computer animated adaptation two years ago. I'm thrilled to find that in these sad times when Frosty, Popeye, and other children's characters have had their pipes taken away, in 2013, Mr. Holm still had his nose warmer, just like I remember it from 20 years ago.

 

[briarfriar]

Puffndave, you beat me to it RE: The Source. Excerpted:

"Ilan Eliav was a master administrator, a man who rarely lost his temper. He was probably the best-educated scholar in the expedition, speaking numerous languages, but his greatest asset was that he smoked a pipe, which he had a habit of rubbing in the palms of his hands until the complainant before him reached some kind of sensible decision without depending upon the intervention of Eliav. Workmen at previous digs had said, 'I'm going in to see if the pipe will approve a raise.' And the kindly Jew with the deep-set eyes would listen as if his heart were breaking, and the bowl of his pipe would revolve slowly in his palms until the workman realized for himself how preposterous a raise would be at that time."