Barrie, James Matthew, My Lady Nicotine A Study in Smoke, London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1890
A book written by the author of Peter Pan about his love affair with smoking. He had quit smoking when he wrote the book and had become contemptuous of it, but the series of 33 essays speak wistfully of his fond remembrances of the days when he enjoyed his pipe. The essay titles include, “His Wife’s Cigar,” “How Heroes Smoke.” and “The Perils of Not Smoking.”
Thankfully, at least in my circles, smoking is going away.
Anecdotaly: I made some Nicotine derivatives for a project in uni. They formed nice yellow crystals, but the smell was dreadful.
I read the first chapter. It’s wryly comical, a bit like Twain but more subtle. I’ll be reading the rest soonish.
DonDueed
Thanks for letting me know. There’s a huge effort put into digitizing all of these wonderful books and a lot of it is done by volunteers so I’m always happy when someone actually reads one of the books I post.
Well, I also started on The Book of Dreams and Ghosts but it’s slow going due to the way it’s digitized (I have to keep scrolling up and down the page as I read). Plus, despite the author’s repeated disclaimers and skeptical comments, it seems rather credulous. Still could be fun though.