Pipe Smoking In Books

[ghost]

I remember as a kid reading Stephen King, and quite a few of his stories had pipe smoking characters featured. A few that come to mind are the short stories "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands", and "The Sun Dog", and of course the epic tome "The Stand" has some pipe moments, particularly at the beginning and end of the book.
There are many other examples as well, especially in the short stories...

 

[rmbittner]

How is it no one has yet mentioned the greatest pipe smoking book of all time: "My Lady Nicotine" by J. M. Barrie?!
While you can read this as a memoir, it's not. It's fiction, but it is based on Barrie's own experiences and what he heard from friends. It's not a novel, per se -- more a series of independent stories that all add up to a delightful reflection on what it means to be devoted to the pipe. (There are one or two chapters that have very little to do with pipe smoking, but they can be skipped over if you desire.)
I reread this one every year and never fail to be enthralled by it.
Bob

 

[apatim]

My Lady Nicotine was mentioned in another thread recently. It is available on Amazon Kindle for 99 cents.

 

[otiumindignitatis]

I also collect these quotes. One of my all time favourites is from John Updike's Roger's Version:

The pleasures of a pipe. The tapping, the poking, the twisting, the cleaning, the stuffing, the lighting: those first cheekhollowing puffs, and the dramatic way the match flame is sucked deep into the tobacco, leaps high in release, and is sucked deep again. And then the mouth-filling perfume, the commanding clouds of smoke. Oddly, I find the facial expressions and mannerisms of other men who smoke pipes stagy, prissy, preening, and offensive. But ever since I, as an unheeded admonition to Esther some years ago, gave up cigarettes, the pipe has been my comfort, my steeplejack’s grab, my handhold on the precipitous cliff of life.