Pipes in Books

[fellrobin]

Hi everyone,

I recently read I Am Legend, the book that inspired the Will Smith film. In it, the main character smokes a pipe in one chapt.
This made me think of other books I’ve read that feature pipe smoking: Sherlock Holmes (goes without saying), as well as Goodnight Mr Tom. Do any of you recall any books that feature pipe smoking?

admins: Apologies, I realise this probably would’ve been better suited in the General Discussion forum!

 

[olkofri]

The Wind in the Willows.

 

[fellrobin]

The Wind in the Willows.

Who smokes a pipe on the wind and the willows :O? I never knew that!

 

[bullet08]

The Hobbit.

 

[judcole]

Lord of the Rings.
Travis McGee smokes a pipe in some of the early novels in that series.
Huckleberry Finn,
Tom Sawyer.
Etc, etc, etc

 

[karibo]

The Inspector Maigret series by Georges Simenon. I wish I had been alive back then!

 

[Dudditz]

Any JRR Tolkien book.

 

[fellrobin]

The Hobbit.

Of course!

 

[mithridate]

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan has quite a lot of scenes including pipe smoking, some of them very epic...

 

[cosmicfolklore]

There are a lot of books. We've had whole threads of them. I can't recall them all, but the ones I was most impressed with was the Hangman's Daughter series. Amazon.com: The Hangman's Daughter (Hangman's Daughter Tales) (A Hangman's Daughter Tale): 9780547745015: Oliver Pötzsch, Lee Chadeayne: Books - https://www.amazon.com/Hangmans-Daughter-Tales-Tale/dp/054774501X
The author goes into a lot of detail, down to describing tobacco being taken down the canals, and how the tobacconists were loading them up with sugars and such to change the weights for tax reasons and such. Plus, they are just a great series of books.

Plus, as suggested by DAR, the writer, Richard Brautigan, included a lot of pipe smoking. But, in the few books I read at his suggestion, I found them to be some rather bizarre reading. Probably readers that like 60's style California writers would really enjoy them.

My brother in law, Scott Lunsford, direct descendant of Lamar Lunsford, a famous family for bringing the banjo out of the Blue Ridge to Nashville, writes a lot of cop and children's books. My meager contribution is turning him onto pipes. And, pipes are mentioned in most of his books, especially the coin based series, where the devil smokes a clay. But, he didn't go into as much detail as I gave him, ha ha. R. Scott Lunsford - https://www.amazon.com/R-Scott-Lunsford/e/B071RL3C7B?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_5&qid=1628685517&sr=1-5

I really can't stress enough how great the Hangman's Daughter series is, especially for those who would like Germanic historical mysteries. Plus, he does go into depth about tobaccos throughout the series. The author is obviously a pipe smoker.

 

[kcghost]

"My Lady Nicotine" by J.M. Barrie the author of Peter Pan.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

"My Lady Nicotine" by J.M. Barrie the author of Peter Pan.

Damn, I just posted a link to that. Did I put it in the wrong thread? Anyways, here it is for free. Awesome book, cracks me up.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of My Lady Nicotine, by J. M. Barrie

 

[burleybreath]

Mystery novels of the "Golden Age" ('30s and '40s) are replete with references to characters' pipe smoking, just as though it were a common everyday thing. Which it was. Just one reason why they're my favorite recreational read. A different age and an escape from today's freak show. For anyone interested, I recommend as a reference A Catalogue of Crime, by Barzun & Taylor, if you can find it.

 

[anantaandroscoggin]

A great many of the books by E. E. "Doc" Smith, especially the Skylark of Space series, but not so much in the Lensman series.

 

[Grangerous]

Damn, I just posted a link to that. Did I put it in the wrong thread? Anyways, here it is for free. Awesome book, cracks me up.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of My Lady Nicotine, by J. M. Barrie

Yes! These guys in old London are hysterical. Worth reading again and again!

 

[peregrinus]

Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
Robinson Crusoe
Novel by Daniel Defoe
Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time has some pipe tobacco and pipe smoking.

 

[olkofri]

Who smokes a pipe on the wind and the willows :O? I never knew that!

Lotsa smoking there; though I reckon it's been 'sanitised' in recent editions.

Wind in the Willows Is for Pipers :: General Pipe Smoking Discussion

Recently got my hands on the unabridged 1980 edition of Kenneth Grahame's classic 'The Wind in the Willows,' as illustrated by the great Michael Hague. Unlike some other versions I've seen, this one has a lot of pipe-smoking in it. Ratty, in particular, is rarely seen without his pipe. I...

pipesmagazine.com

 

[anotherbob]

any book if you picture it that way. Can really spice up some books. Harder to do with picture books.

 

[RonB]

Mystery novels of the "Golden Age" ('30s and '40s) are replete with references to characters' pipe smoking, just as though it were a common everyday thing. Which it was. Just one reason why they're my favorite recreational read. A different age and an escape from today's freak show. For anyone interested, I recommend as a reference A Catalogue of Crime, by Barzun & Taylor, if you can find it.

I second this. The Inspector French novels of Freeman Wills Crofts are of this period. The inspector uses his pipe to think through the mystery.

 

[B.Lew]

Many William Faulkner novels have characters that smoke a pipe. Although it is usually a minor element to a character as smoking and tobacco in many forms would have been commonplace during the era. Lawyer Gavin Stevens in a few novels (most notably the Snopes trilogy) is referenced as having a corncob pipe and a jar of tobacco on his desk; fiddling with and even packing, but stopping just short of striking the match and lighting. It is an interesting element to his personality. I always interpreted that he appreciated the methodology and slowness to thought a pipe provides, but didn’t actually care for the act of burning and smoking. The element is most often highlighted during a intimate or moving dialogue with another character within his law office.