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

7 inmany of their raids, including the sack of Panama when he served under one of the most notorious of them all, Captain Henry Morgan. His ‘History of the Buccaneers of America’ became an instant bestseller when it was published in Amsterdam in 1678. German, Spanish and English editions followed. In 1724 what is probably the most accurate account of the ‘sea wolves’ was published under the title, ‘A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates’. The writer’s name was given as Captain Charles Johnson but it is now widely believed that this was a pseudonym for Daniel Defoe, author of ‘Robinson Crusoe’. Strangely enough, the cheaply-produced part-works of the Victorian age known as ‘Bloods’ or ‘Penny Dreadfuls’ didn’t embrace the pirate as fondly as they did that other romantic malefactor, the highwayman. One of the most imaginative of the Bloods’ pirate stories—certainly the one with the most memorable title and the most entertaining illustrations—was ‘The Death Ship; or The Pirate’s Bride and the Maniac of the Deep’ (1846). In this story, as well as the presence of ghost ships and gallows ships (with dead men hanging from the rigging), the pirate captain’s table is set up with the skeletons of the Royal Navy officers who had been sent to catch him. In 1880, the most prominent of the publishers of the Penny Dreadfuls, Edward Viles, was offered the manuscript of a pirate tale called ‘The Sea Cook’ by one R. L. Stevenson. He thought that the plot had some promise and told the author that he would purchase the tale but would have it re-written by a more competent hand. The author refused and ‘The Sea Cook’ was eventually LEFT: The Crimson Cutlass by Frank Schoonover, 1933. After Pyle, Schoonover was one of the American illustrators who did illustrations of many pirate stories and books. TOP RIGHT: Privateers of ’76 , written by Ralph Paine with illustrations by Schoonover, 1923. Paine was one of the early American authors of pirate books. As the title implies, it concerns privateers during the American Revolution. BELOW: Yankee Ships in Pirate Waters written by Rupert Sargeant Holland with illustrations by Schoonover, 1929.