EXTRACTS: Pirates! Illustrators Special Edition © 2020 The Book Palace (128 PAGES in Full edition)

56 ally published in book form in 1883, it became an almost instant best-seller and has never been out of print, spawning many sequels and at least two prequels. Stevenson’s novel contains all the basic elements of the pirate story as we now know it: a treasure map; seaports bustling with life; mutineers; hand-to-hand fighting with cutlasses, dirks and pistols: desert islands; rogues with colourful names such as Billy Bones, Black Dog, Blind Pew and, of course, the “seafaring man with one leg”, Long John Silver himself. The mood of the tale is established very early on when the drunken Billy Bones is frightening the customers of the ‘Admiral Benbow Inn’ with stories of his life at sea: “Dreadful stories they were; about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main”. Reading this powerful story, it is not surprising that, of all the classic tales of adventure, it is ‘Treasure Island’ that has been most often illustrated. Stevenson placed great importance on the power of illustration to sell a book, especially to young readers, and he wrote to a friend that “with anything like half good pictures, it should sell. I suppose I may at least hope for eight pic’s? I aspire after ten or twelve”. Aspire he might have done but he was due for a disappoint‐ ment as the first publication of ‘Treasure Island’ in book form (by Cassell and FACING PAGE: The Hostage , oil on canvas by N. C. Wyeth, 1911. Wyeth was a student of Howard Pyle, but hardly followed Pyle’s advice of travelling to get a better vision of what he was painting. All the illustrations he did for the ‘Treasure Island’ book were based on the region where Wyeth lived, Chadds Ford, Pensylvannia. The original paintings for this book were huge, three by four feet, and cost Wyeth an enormous effort but one that he felt was worth it. He called the ‘Treasure Island’ illustrations “far better in every quality than anything I ever did.” Wyeth’s version has remained in print since 1911 and is considered his masterpiece. BELOW: Long John Silver and his Parrot , watercolour and gouache on board by James E. McConnell.