Pipefuls

Gathered from the newspaper columns and magazine pieces Christopher Morley wrote around 1920, this collection of familiar essays takes its title from the notion of an essay as something to be enjoyed slowly, the way one enjoys a pipe after dinner. Morley writes about the pleasures of browsing in bookshops, the small comedy of commuter trains, the daily grind of writing a column, surf fishing, moving house, cider, and the contrasting characters of Philadelphia and New York in his “Tales of Two Cities.” His voice is light, companionable, and closely observant, attentive to the ordinary textures of American city life. For readers who love the unhurried personal essay, this book shows one of the most genial men of letters of the early twentieth century at his most relaxed and quietly funny.