A prolific writer, dramatist, poet, novelist, critic, political theorist, and pipe smoker, John Boynton Priestley is among the most highly regarded names in English literature. He wrote 26 novels, 39 plays, and multiple volumes of criticism and essays for a total of almost 200 works. He reinvented himself as a writer to maintain relevance, beginning as an essayist and then moving to playwriting and novels, and maintained impressive productivity even into old age, publishing 21 books from the time he was 70 to his death in 1984 at age 89.

Born in 1894 in Manningham in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, which was populated mainly by industrial workers, he took a job at age 16 as a clerk with a company that prepared wool, and he wrote at night. Newspapers both local and in London started publishing his work, but in 1914 he volunteered for military service and he served until 1919, becoming badly wounded in 1916 when a mortar exploded in his trench and he was buried alive, leaving him claustrophobic for the rest of his life.

he was buried alive, leaving him claustrophobic for the rest of his life

In Margin Released: Reminiscences & Reflections (1962), he ponders the experience:

The Beginnings of Professional Writing

After he left the army at age 25, he earned a degree at Cambridge and quickly gained a reputation as an essayist. His first book, Adam in Moonshine was published in 1927, followed later that year by Benighted, with themes of post-war disillusionment and dejection. It was his third book, The Good Companions (1929), that was an immediate bestseller and launched him into the public consciousness. Priestley wrote it in the classic style of the picaresque novel, which is a genre of realism in which a waggish protagonist, usually of lower social class, endures adventures and mishaps by means of their wits.

The Good Companions is about a traveling entertainment group as they tour England. The novel maintained popularity for 40 years and then waned, but a new edition was released in 2007. It was adapted for radio, two films, and stage and musical productions.

In the 1930s, Priestley turned his attention to writing for the stage, and it is his work as a playwright that is most remembered. He'd already collaborated on adapting The Good Companions, but his first work of stage drama was Dangerous Corner, about guests at a country manor who discover dark secrets about one another and the tragic results that transpire. Interestingly, this play included a plot device that Priestley would often use: a time slip. At the end of the play, time slips back to the beginning and the unfortunate remark that initiated the tragedy is averted. His plays were "drawing-room drama," a popular mode of the era.

it is his work as a playwright that is most remembered

Priestley's Fascination with Time

His fascination with and manipulation of time as a plot device were evident in his "Time Plays," which include Dangerous Corner (1932), Time and the Conways (1937), I Have Been Here Before (1937), and An Inspector Calls (1945), among others. Priestley based his treatment of time on the theories of J. W. Dunne, who postulated an infinite number of higher dimensions of time, each accompanied by a higher level of consciousness, at the top of which was a supreme observer. Our awake state, thought Dunne, prevents the remembering of more of our timeline. The use of time as a metaphysical phenomenon insinuated itself into much of Priestley's work. In 1964 he published an involved and detailed essay about time, "Man and Time."

The most famous of his plays is An Inspector Calls (1945), another classic drawing-room drama. In three acts, its action occurs on a single night in the life of the Birling family when they are visited by Inspector Goole about the suicide of a young woman. The play is required reading for degrees in English literature in the United Kingdom and is a scathing criticism of the hypocrisies of Edwardian England, as well as a platform for some of Priestley's socialist tendencies.

Politics and Social Responsibility

Priestley became a BBC broadcaster in the early '40s, drawing a regular audience of 16 million. Author/journalist Graham Greene considered Priestley's broadcasts to be almost as important to the country during the war as those of Winston Churchill. The broadcasts were curtailed in 1942, however, when Churchill or his cabinet decided that they were too left-wing.

Politically outspoken, Priestley's broadcasts have been credited with helping the Labor Party gain power in 1945. He involved himself again in 1958 as cofounder of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Priestley was married three times and had multiple affairs, and continued his writing well into the 1970s, passing away in 1984 from pneumonia. Strangely, no one knows exactly where he's buried. Generally speaking, he's buried in Hubberholme Churchyard in Yorkshire, but only the three people present to see the burial of the ashes knew the precise location, and it remains unmarked. The church itself displays a plaque stating that Priestley's ashes are interred "nearby."

Priestley and Pipes

"Whether one admires Priestley or rejects him as irrelevant, it is impossible to ignore the pipe," writes John Atkins in his biography, J.B. Priestley: The Last of the Sages (1981). "It is tempting to identify him with his pipe, to characterise him as pipe-smoking homo [sapiens]; he is photographed with it, he writes of it lovingly, many of his characters retire to corners to indulge in its savour. ..."

Indeed, Priestley loved his pipes, included them in his fiction, extolled them in essays, and made them integral to the lives of his characters. Frustratingly, we know little of his tobacco or pipe choices. His pipes are housed in the J.B Priestley Archive at the University of Bradford in West Yorkshire, UK. However, the archive list provided on the web site does not detail the pipes, but notes that, "access to uncleaned pipes and smoking materials is restricted for health reasons. Cleaning is in progress." It's the most recent publication, dated 2013, though is marked as an "interim" catalog. It's distressing, however, that Bradford University thinks that used pipes are health hazards.

His pipes are housed in the J.B Priestley Archive at the University of Bradford

A Special Collections publication from the University of Bradford, dated 2010, reports that "The J.B. Priestley Archive includes over 70 of Priestley's pipes, plus related paraphernalia such as his 1979 Pipeman of the Year trophy, tobacco tins and pouches, matchbooks, and a bowl which housed pipes in current use." While a "full list of the pipes is in preparation," access to these items is limited to researchers, by appointment only. The university hopes to match the pipes in the collection with photographs of Priestley.

The J.B. Priestley Archive includes over 70 of Priestley's pipes

His pipe became part of his persona. In J.B. Priestley: The Last of the Sages, John Atkins expands on the emblematic nature of Priestley's pipes:

Priestley himself had lots to say about pipes in both fiction and essays. In the novel Bright Day (1946), for example, the character Uncle Miles is a pipe smoker, and the tobacco he smokes is "... always Exchange Mixture from Porsons' in Market Street, and very good it was too: I wish I had some now."

Tobacco

However, the greatest trove of pipe treasure may be found in an essay titled "Tobacco" (1966). Priestley discusses pipes and tobacco at the beginning:

Much like Mark Twain, Priestley had no patience for those who would warn him of the evils of tobacco. He already knew and didn't care: "Those people now ready to write and tell me I am a slave to a dirty habit need not waste time, paper and stamps. I admit I have been long enslaved by tobacco. But all men are enslaved by something, and there are worse masters than the weed. By encouraging me to reflect, at the same time freeing me from spiritual pride, it has kept me from more dangerous forms of slavery."

At one point, Priestley becomes involved in giving advice about pipes and how to achieve the most pleasurable smoke from them:

He recommends at least three pipes in a smokers rotation, and he complains about those who do not rotate pipes. He's a little on the judgemental side where it comes to smoking:

In another essay, "On Beginning," Priestley discusses the importance of pipes in his daily routine of pre-work procrastination and avoidance: "I clean a pipe or two, all the while pretending to myself that I am eager to get to work, though it is curious (to say the least of it) that I never scrape and clean my pipes at any other time."

And of course he provides tips about tobacco, recommending that when starting the pipe, one should avoid Virginia leaf or "mild mixtures" because they may produce tongue bite. "Try a darker flake or a mixture with a fair amount of Latakia and Perique in it. Out of the strong comes forth sweetness. Fill your pipes carefully, using the third finger not the first to complete the filling. The trick then is to keep the tobacco smouldering, smoking as slowly as possible, for the hotter it is the worse it tastes and smells."

J.B. Priestley was a man who knew his pipes, as he should after smoking them for 60-plus years. He was generous with his advice for other smokers, and he enjoyed his own pipes at a high level of performance. While we admire his considerable contribution to literature, what many of us will most resonate with is his love for pipe tobacco, his dedication to pipe smoking, and despite any objections that may be offered, his unwavering determination to smoke heartily.

References:

• The J.B. Priestley Society
• The Official J.B. Priestley Website
• Priestley the Pipeman
• J.B Priestley: The Last of the Sages (1981), by John Atkins
• Margin Released (1962), by J.B. Priestley
• "Tobacco" (1966), by J.B. Priestley