A hypothetical bowl ...

ChaplainCorey

Considering all of the amazing pipe smokers throughout history (and those who are still with us), if you could share a bowl with one of them, who would it be, and why?

mfresa

Beethoven.

Winton

I know, through another pipe forum, a man who works in PNG, north of Australia, who also makes pipes. No chance of ever meeting him person. BUT!!!! through a series of events, he will be at the Chicago Pipe Show! I have met / interacted with some amazing people through this hobby. 

Of course I would enjoy smoking with CS Lewis and Tolkien. 

jim102864

Graham Chapman of Monty Python fame.  Ronald Reagan. Nat King Cole.  Albert Einstein.  There are obviously so many, I can't pick just one.

PappyJoe

I've met famous celebrities, writers and politicians in my time. A couple of them were even pipe smokers. Some of them were nice, gracious individuals in person and others were too self-important. 

If I could sit and smoke a bowl with someone famous living today, it would probably be Dr. Frank Hanna so I could talk pipes and tobacco with him.

If I could sit and smoke a bowl with someone long gone it would be my step-grandfather. He was a pipe smoker and I think I would enjoy sitting and talking to him while sharing a pipe. He died in 1979 and I was given two of his pipes.

Charles

For me, I would have to say either Albert Einstein or Nigel Bruce.  Definitely Einstein because of my passion for physics and theories of time travel and Bruce because I always thought he was a fine English actor. 

motie2

E.A. Carey, my pipe hero

AnantaAndroscoggin

Given how negatively people react to me in person, I've grown unable to picture such an event taking place . . .

Jayhawk422

I would have to say my Mom’s Uncle Dom. He passed before I was born, but she says I always reminded her of him, even before I picked up the pipe.

BlueCollarBastard

General Patton

buflosab

For me it would be author William Manchester, after reading his book Goodbye Darkness about revisiting the various battle fields in the Pacific he took part in during the War. What a fascinating conversation that would be.

ocpunk714

C.S. Lewis...Chronicles of Narnia was one of my favorite books growing up

xDutchx

I could sit and listen to Dr. Shelby Foote reminisce for hours. I would imbed this interview, but since it is on the long side, I didn't want to eat up the bandwidth, so I am just posting the you tube link.

s://youtu.be/TtbFCwFHk9o

motie2

I have it on good authority that Dr. Foote smoked Sutliff Edward G. Robinson's blend.

Which I still have not had the chance to try.... raining night and day. But thanks be, it's not snow.

xDutchx

@motie2, that is correct, but he blended the EGR with 1/3rd of an over the counter such as Half and Half. Later on he blended 1/3 House of Windsor Barking Dog, which was a burley and latakia mix.

Since the EGR already had a touch of latakia, I suppose in reality he was still just adding more burley. What is not clear, is whether or not the latakia in either of these blends, was the Syrian variety, smoked with aromatic wood, fragrant herbs, and camel dung.

xDutchx

@motie2,

Being that Shelby Foote has always been one of my favorite authors, and knowing that some of the brothers and sisters here are still fans of reading, I thought I would share this blog I found online a few weeks back.

Written by a former local tobacconist in downtown Memphis, it gives a personal glimpse of the author and his relationship with the pipe.

The photo above is of a pipe that once belonged to Shelby Foote. It's a meerschaum by master carver Beckler in the image of Robert E. Lee.

In a past life I owned a small pipe & cigar shop in downtown Memphis and Mr. Foote was a regular customer (William Faulkner was a customer before my time, but that's another story). I acquired this pipe when Mr. Foote's son came around selling off some items after his father had passed away. I bought it with an eye toward profit, of course, but then found I couldn't part with it. How would I prove its authenticity anyway? I can't even prove it to you, so you'll just have to take my word.

I inherited Foote as a customer. His routine was that every six weeks or so he'd call and tell me he would be down that day, and I'd put his order together - two pounds of a tobacco I called Mello Mix and a few canisters of Edward G. Robinson pipe tobacco. He handled the blending himself. Sometime that afternoon, he'd pull up to the curb in his little white BMW, come in and pick up his package and then leave. I'd include an invoice and he'd mail a check within the week.

It's how he'd done business with the previous owner for decades and I saw no reason to alter the arrangement.

But then I did. Or, I tried to. One day he called to say he'd be down and I said, "Mr. Foote, your house is right on my way home in the evening, why don't you let me take this tobacco to you so you don't have to make the drive downtown?"

My thinking was that when I showed up at his doorstep, he'd show me in and ask me to sit for a bit. Maybe we'd have a drink and talk about writing and reading and whatever he might want to discuss. I'd get to see where he works, where he wrote the three volume The Civil War and some of his novels.

Instead, he thanked me and told me just where, outside of his front door, I could leave the package.

Be sure that, after pulling into the Footes' driveway that evening, I made my presence known. I got out of my car and slammed the door as loudly as I could and took my time walking to the door, hoping for that spontaneous invite. I left the tobacco and, as I was getting back into my car, I heard someone calling to me. I looked around, and then up, and saw the old man leaning from an upper window, from his turret, waving down and thanking me. I waved back.

Shelby Foote did not cotton to visitors or small talk with strangers. But he did, at some point, allow interviewers from The Paris Review into his home and I've just read that interview. It's fantastic. From the beginning when the interviewer writes, "Dressed in his regular writing attire (pajamas and bathrobe) Foote opened the door, a rambunctious chocolate Lab retriever named Bird barking and leaping behind him" to his tales of time spent with Faulkner, his writing process, the evils of Hollywood and, of course, the Civil War.

I took to heart, though, the answer he gave to the poorly-worded question, "What kind of advice would you give young writers?"

Quote :

To read, and above all to reread. When you read, you get the great pleasure of discovering what happened. When you reread, you get the great pleasure of knowing where the author’s going and seeing how he goes about getting there—and that’s learning creative writing. I would tell a young writer that. Of course I would tell him: work, work, work, sit at that desk and sweat. You don’t have to have a plot, you don’t have to have anything. Describe someone crossing a room, and try to do it in a way that won’t perish. Put it down on paper. Keep at it. Then when you finally figure out how to handle words pretty well, try to tell a story. It won’t be worth a damn; you’ll have to tear it up and throw it away. But then try to do it again, do it again, and then keep doing it, until you can do it. You may never be able to do it. That’s the gamble. You not only may not be able to make a living, you may not be able to do it at all. But that’s what you put on the line. Every artist has that. He doesn’t deserve a whole lot of credit for it. He didn’t choose it. It was visited upon him. Somebody asks, When did you decide you wanted to be a writer? I never decided I wanted to be a writer. I simply woke up a writer one morning.  

I love to read known, established writers' advice to those of us sitting at our desks, sweating. It makes me think that what I think and do with my pencil and paper each day may, one day, amount to something.

I count myself lucky having known Mr. Foote, as much as I could know him. There was the odd time or two that he lingered in the shop and we talked. We talked, not of writing or the Civil War, but about pipes. He loved his pipes - the Canadian was his preference with its short mouthpiece and long, straight shank - and, by his count, he had thousands, many sent to him by fans.

I'm a fan and I appreciate having a pipe of his now. It sits across the room atop an old Underwood typewriter, perfect for me to look up to for inspiration and to remind me to stay right where I am and to work, work, work.


http://uurrff.blogspot.com/2011/01/shelby-footes-pipe.html

Woodsman

Mark Twain(Samuel Clemens) hands down.

Corey562

Sixten Ivarsson, I love his work and would like to know where he got his inspiration from.

motie2

@xDutchx -- Thank you for posting the above. Very interesting,.......

xDutchx

@motie2, I think if most folks take the time to listen to Dr. Footes interview, they may view him a little differently than they would otherwise. He was an extremely talented writer, and intelligent human being, and one of the South's proudest achievements.

thebadgerpiper

I'd pick C.S. Lewis or Tolkien. They've been such an inspiration to me that I'd love to have a chat and learn from them.

xDutchx

@Corey562, that is basically why Sixten Ivarsson is considered so inspirational himself. He expected more of himself, during a time in history, when mass pipe production was the norm. He didn't let a lack of materials, limit his artistic vision. This ability is what many up and coming artisan pipemakers would identify with, and find themselves knocking on Sixten's door, requesting to apprentice under his tutelage. The fact that so many have gone on to become successful artisan pipe carvers, is a testament to his talent, skill, and vision.

Without Sixten Ivarsson, there would be a less inspired Bo Nordh. When we study the current pipes that artisan grade carvers are producing today, we can see the influences of Sixten Ivarsson every time we see a piece of bamboo incorporated into a pipe.

I am guessing that his inspiration for his pipemaking, came not from other pipemakers, but from the shapes of other artists creations, but I don't know this as fact. You can check out his Pipedia page, and get some ideas from the section titled "Sixten and Functionalism."

https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ivarsson,_Sixten

ChaplainCorey

Wow, great feedback everyone. I’m with @thebadgerpiper on the toss up but I think I would go with Lewis. His letters are endlessly fascinating and educational. I think we could talk about almost anything without getting lost. Then again, we could nerd out on English literature or history too. It would have to be Lewis.