Regis McCafferty: A Founding Writer of the NASPC

Regis McCafferty is an American figure who combined a career as a fiction writer with pipe collecting in a single life. He is known in the community under two distinct roles: as the author of stories and novels whose characters rarely put their pipes down, and as one of the founders of one of North America's long-established pipe associations. Publisher biographies note that, after a period spent in New Mexico, he settled in northern Ohio; this detail has not been independently confirmed. That the association he founded is based in Ohio, however, is a matter of record.

Founding the Association

In 1993, McCafferty decided together with Phil Bradford that a club should be founded in Ohio. The aim was not narrowly defined: to promote pipe smoking, share knowledge of tobacco, and build a network of friendship among smokers. The club launched under the name Ohio Pipe Collectors; keeping information flowing through a newsletter, keeping membership open to all, and holding at least one gathering a year were the founding principles adopted from the start.

According to the association's records, by the spring of 1997 membership had spread across more than twenty states and into Canada; a name tied to a single state no longer matched its scope. The board renamed the club the North American Society of Pipe Collectors (NASPC). The association's two lasting institutions are the bimonthly newsletter The Pipe Collector, made up largely of member-written contributions, and the annual pipe gathering held in Columbus at the end of August. This structure is regarded as one of the most durable American examples of the "newsletter plus annual show" model seen throughout the general history of pipe clubs.

As a Writer

McCafferty's books range from crime fiction to historical fiction, from story collections to adventure narrative. Among them are Bugs (2003) and The God and the Gold (2011), part of the Hays McKay series; Twenty Six Days (2012), set in Victorian England; Gran Quivira (2007), a story collection that brings together England and the American Southwest; and The Sherlock Holmes Adventure (2004). During the same years, shorter-form books such as Then Now Whenever (2003) and Another View From The Park (2003) were also published. His most frequently cited title in the community is The Nude on the Cigarette Case (2013), set in the New York winter of 1939 and centred on private detective Max Grant; the book blends the espionage atmosphere surrounding early nuclear research in the opening months of the war with the crime-fiction mould. The dates given here refer to first editions; later printings may show different years.

In most of these books, the pipe is more than an accessory — it is worked in as a habit that sets the narrative's rhythm and defines the character. Fiction of this kind, produced from within the community, is part of a broader tendency for collecting to generate its own literature, as seen in the case of John Seiler. McCafferty's name appears both in this literary vein and under the heading of pipe publishing.