By Lisa Hix — Modern Americans tend to think of Walt Whitman as the embodiment of democracy and individualism, a literary icon who lifted up the common man when he wrote, “I Hear America Singing” in his revolutionary free-verse poetry collection . But have you ever considered Walt Whitman, the brand? “Walt Whitman believed in this book. He knew that 'Leaves of Grass' was unique. It provoked people, and he realized the controversy would sell it.” Starting in the late 19th century and continuing today,...

The Blues Rocker's New Secret Weapon? An Electric Cigar Box Guitar

By Maribeth Keane — Johnny Lowe of Memphis, Tennessee, makes guitars out of cigar boxes, furniture, and other recycled objects. These humble-looking instruments, known as Lowebows, have taken the stage with Kid Rock, Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi All Stars, and Timbuk 3's Pat MacDonald, who named his latest band, Purgatory Hill, after a Lowe cigar box guitar called the Purgatory Hill Harp. "Slide guitar evolved from the diddley bow." The Flying-V-style guitar (above, right) is Lowe's King Louie...

Cigar Memorabilia Is Still Smoking

By Maribeth Keane and George Spencer — Tony Hyman has been collecting cigar boxes since he was 12. The National Cigar Museum has been open for 10 to 12 years in various formats on the Internet, but I completely redesigned the site about four years ago. In the early days, I’d send information to industry executives, and they’d post it, so they had control of the site. But when iWeb came out for the Mac, it made it so easy to build and maintain a site that I took it back from them, because they weren’t posting enough new...

Where There's Smoke There's a Vintage Cigarette Lighter

By Maribeth Keane — At the very beginning, my interest in lighters was about the mechanism. I had my first lighter when I was 14. I saved up my nickels and dimes. I grew up in Oakland, and bought my first cigarette lighter because I thought it was way cool. I didn’t smoke and I didn’t set fire to things. I just thought the lighter was really a beautiful piece of equipment and the whole idea of being able to push down your thumb and get a flame just really caught my fancy. I was attracted to the function of...

Collecting Vintage Cigarette Lighters

By Eric Beeson — Cigarette lighter collecting is a hobby that never gets boring. Just by browsing eBay auctions for ten minutes, for example, I recently found a lighter shaped like a lion’s head, one made of jade and gold, and an electric lighter in the shape of a woman’s face that hangs on the wall. A flame we can carry in our pockets is something that we take for granted, but it was much harder to make fire in earlier times. The match wasn’t invented until about 1805, and early matches were expensive...