The Book of Pipes & Tobacco

by Carl Ehwa

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394470001
• ISBN13: 9780394470009
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 239 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An essential title

Ehwa's book, The Book of Pipes and Tobacco, is, in my opinion, a book that every pipe smoker should own. There are a lot of wonderful pipe smoking books out there. The very first one I read was Hacker's famous volume (and despite that book I decided to keep smoking pipes in hopes that I'd not ever encounter others like him or like his book). Still, for a beginner, Hacker's is a decent read. Alfred Dunhill's book is a wonderful historical piece, historical in two senses. First, he delves into pipes, exploring them and tracing them back more thoroughly than anyone else. Second, Dunhill is himself an instrumental figure in modern pipe smoking; whether you love his pipe company's product or not, it is impossible to deny his place in pipe history. Newcomb's book is a delightful read, accessible, and the author stands as a wonderful advocate for our hobby. And the recently released Pipes:Artisans and Trademarks, by Jose Manuel Lopes, is a brilliant piece of research and an amazing accomplishment; the book serves as both a delightful coffee table work and also as a decent reference source alongside Who Made That Pipe. There are several other, similar, books which occupy places of honor in my personal library. Ehwa's book, however, stands alone to me. Yes, it is somewhat dated, having been published in 1974. However, like a good piece of literature this book has stood the test of time. The writing is clean and enjoyable. The flow is wonderful. But what makes this book so important to me is that the REAL reason we all smoke pipes is the enjoyment of tobacco. At least I hope that is our reason; I love my pipes, I love to collect them, to look at them, to trade with others, but until I fill my pipe with tobacco it is merely an object. Once filled and lit, however, it becomes so much more. It is a source of relaxation, it is a source of pleasure, it is a provider of flavor which I enjoy. The addition of tobacco transforms a physical object into a mental one, transforms the experience of owning a pipe into an experience of, well, experiencing it! I think I have a neophyte's pallate still, but I take pleasure in sharing what I can share about the experience I get from tobacco. Yet that experience must be put into words, and to put it into words a reviewer needs to be able to express sense in words. Doing so is not so easy. However, after reading Ehwa's book I learned worlds about making that transformation. Ehwa knew tobacco, and knew how to discuss tobacco; reading his book's section, "Part Three-Tobacco:The Special Herb" is a revealatory, almost religious experience. Here, he discusses curing, processing, types of cuts, and all of the essentials of taking the leaf from the field all of the way to the pipe. He discusses the different types of tobacco, and how the preparation of these different leaves so changes their basic character. But where the book excels is in his seemingly simple explanation of such terms as aroma, flavor, body, and smoothness. Readi

Very Nice Survey of Pipes & Tobaccos

Very cool little book which covers the history of smoking from pre-Columbian times to the modern era. Interesting coverage of how tobacco is grown, sold and harvested. Also includes a good section on how to get started with pipe-smoking, going over everything from pipe type and shape to tobaccos which the beginner or expert might appreciate. Something for everyone, whether a new smoker and one of many years' experience. Should be on every man's bookshelf.

a classic

The young lady who eventually became my wife gave this book to me a few months after we met thirty years ago. I not only still possess and occasionally read passages from it but I recently purchased a copy for a friend. The author is a no mere professional writer but a knowledgeable industry insider. The book is an intermediate level overview with a moderately heavy dose of history, artwork and photographs. Ehwa gave balanced treatments to briars, meerschaums and tobacco. Based on my 35 years of smoking a pipe, if you get only one pipe book, let it be this one.