| In his essay "Sifting the Ashes," the writer Jonathan | | | | Japan Times (it was part of his cover), lived in Crete, |
| Franzen has the following to say about the smoking | | | | and wrote the massive, tripped-out series of literary |
| habit he struggles to quit: "[W]hen you're smoking, | | | | espionage novels known as the Jerusalem Quartet, a |
| you're acutely present to yourself: you step outside the | | | | work lauded by Tom Robbins as - like a bowl of |
| unconscious forward rush of life." | | | | hashish pudding - and by Jonathon Carroll as a book |
| Beautiful words, with which many cigar smokers would | | | | that |
| agree. Perhaps that's why so many of history's most | | | | "makes your soul grow." (To give you an idea: one of |
| famous and best-loved writers are hard to mentally | | | | the books is about a 12-year-long game of poker in |
| picture without a cigar: Mark Twain, Ernest | | | | which the winner becomes owner of the Holy Land. |
| Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Collette, George Sand, | | | | That's just the plot of one of them.) Yet the Quartet |
| Karl Marx. Not terrible company, and they're not alone. | | | | went out of print after only a few years, and |
| Some major contemporary writers are cigar smokers | | | | Whittemore ended his days in dire poverty and |
| as well. | | | | obscurity, working as a photocopier for a law firm. |
| Paul Auster | | | | In 2003, eight years after his death, the Quartet was |
| Born in Newark, New Jersey, Paul Auster graduated | | | | republished to all-but-universal acclaim; Jim Hougan, |
| from Columbia, then moved to Paris, France to eke out | | | | writing in Harper's, called it "one of the last, best |
| a living as a French-literature translator. He's been | | | | arguments against television" and Whittemore - an |
| married to two highly-regarded American writers "Siri | | | | author of extraordinary talents. His friend Thomas C. |
| Hustvedt (currently) and, before that, Lydia Davis, who | | | | Wallace remembers his love of cigars: "We walked |
| is also known for her translation work - and his novels | | | | the woods and fields of southern Vermont by day, sat |
| The New York Trilogy and Moon Palace are modern | | | | in front of the house after dinner on solid green |
| classics. He's known for using the shape of the | | | | Adirondack chairs, drinks in hand and smoking cigars." |
| detective story to entertain larger questions about the | | | | In a similar spirit, lovers of fine cigars should search out |
| meaning of identity, of language, and of existence. But | | | | his one-of-a-kind novels - after all, premium cigar |
| his biggest fame - and his importance to smokers - | | | | smokers already know that the most immediately |
| came when he wrote and co-directed the movie | | | | accessible pleasures aren't always the deepest. |
| Smoke, a landmark of American indie cinema set in a | | | | John Grisham |
| Brooklyn cigar shop. | | | | You probably know that John Grisham is an ex-lawyer |
| Centered on Auggie Wren, owner of the Brooklyn | | | | and the biggest-selling novelist of the 1990s, but you |
| Cigar Company - a sort of existential Dew Drop Inn | | | | probably don't know about his charity work, his |
| where large cross-sections of humanity gather - it | | | | advocacy on behalf of the wrongly imprisoned, his |
| ponders the random yet seemingly meaningful | | | | tireless support of less-commercially-successful writers |
| connections among various people, a major theme in | | | | - or the fact that it's been said he smokes four cigars |
| Auster's writing (as well as of several other major | | | | a week. In addition to writing the well-loved legal thrillers |
| American art films from the same period - consider | | | | The Firm and A Time To Kill, among others (as well as |
| Short Cuts and Magnolia). Auster's selection of a | | | | such departures as A Painted House), he has done |
| smoke shop as his setting renders the film, which is | | | | missionary and relief work in Brazil and service on the |
| based on one of his own short stories, especially | | | | board of the Innocence Project, which uses DNA |
| meaningful for diehard cigar smokers. | | | | testing to exonerate the wrongfully convicted. Perhaps |
| Edward Whittemore | | | | all of this is why he ended up on one of Cigar |
| Here's an artist with a colorful life indeed - he went | | | | Aficionado's lists of the top hundred smokers. |
| from Yale to the Marines to the CIA, wrote for the | | | | |