Edited by James Walton

In ancient times, when the land was barren, the Great Spirit sent a beautiful, naked girl to save humanity. Wherever her right hand touched the earth, there grew potatoes. Wherever her left hand touched the earth there grew corn. And in the place where she sat, there grew tobacco.

Huron myth

Contents

Introduction xi

Prologue: The Way We Smoke Now

PART ONE The History of Smoking

1 The First Accounts 17

2 Arrival in Europe to Global Domination 23

3 Sneezing for Pleasure: the Rise of Snuff 49

4 The Return of Smoking - and Cigarettes Debates 58

5 The All-Conquering Cigarette 75

6 'Has Mankind All These Years Been Nursing a Viper in Its Bosom?' 89

7 Armageddon Time 105

PART TWO Smoking Themes

8 Women and Smoking 141

9 Smokers v. Non-Smokers 162

10 The True Smoker; or, The Hopeless Addict 173

11 Writing and Smoking 184

12 Smoking, Prison and Prison Camps 199

13 Soldiers and Smoking 204

14 Smoking Sex and Seduction 213

15 giving, Receiving, Bonding 222

16 All in the Mind: Smoking and Thinking 228

17 Young Smokers 242

18 A Packet of Twenty 247

Poisoning Cats - Self-rationing - The Speed of Modern Life - Smoking Under Siege - Smoking and Diplomacy - Smoking and the Germans - Smoking and the Burmese - The Pipe as Companion - Favorite Brands - Smoking Etiquette - Smoking Snobbery - The Poor Man's Friend - Smoking Myths - Some Distinctive Smokers (in Raymond Chandler) - Smoking and Sport - Tobacco, Taxes and Smuggling - Tobacco as Currency - The First Smokers - The Last Smoke - The Future

19 Giving Up 286

20 A Final Mixed Bag 316

Acknowledgments 325

Index 329

Publisher Faber and Faber