9 h 45 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A black flag, a hidden chest, a captain who cannot rest: where does the pirate legend begin?
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates brings together stories, articles and pictures that mix sea history with invention. An essay on the buccaneers and marooners of the Spanish Main explores a coast where treasure ships and rich towns draw raiders. In The Fate of a Treasure Town, Henry Morgan leads a daring raid on Panama, a rich city that is hard to reach.
The stories also lead toward lonely shores and darker mysteries. Tom Chist and the Treasure Box turns to buried riches, while The Ghost of Captain Brand introduces a dead captain who is not at rest. Across these pages, Pyle's writing and paintings reveal a world of sea robbers, marooned men and hidden gold—and help explain the pirate images we still carry.
What you’ll discover
- Raiders of the Spanish Main Explore the Caribbean coast where treasure ships and wealthy towns attract real buccaneers.
- Henry Morgan's daring raid Follow The Fate of a Treasure Town toward Panama, a rich and difficult target.
- The pull of hidden gold Discover the lure of buried riches in Tom Chist and the Treasure Box.
- A captain without rest Enter the darker pirate legend through The Ghost of Captain Brand and tales of marooning.
- The pirate in your mind See how Pyle's pictures help shape the familiar world of cutlasses, chests and black flags.
Who will love it
Readers who love sea adventure, buried treasure, ghost stories and swift plots will find a crowd of rogues here. It also suits anyone curious about real pirates like Morgan and Blackbeard, as well as tales told by firelight.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Piracy grew out of the war with Spain
- Marooners spread terror along the Atlantic coast
- A pirate's grandson meets his grandfather's murderer
- A boy joins Captain Morgan to learn piracy
- A foundling watches pirates bury a treasure chest
- Colonial governors shelter pirates until Maynard sails
- A miller faces trouble from a returning stepbrother
- A navy lieutenant hunts an elusive pirate
- An ivory ball draws a young clerk into danger
Who’s who
- Henry MorganThe Welsh buccaneer who sacks Porto Bello and Panama, wins his men's trust, and cheats them of their share.
- Barnaby TrueA young merchant's agent in New York, teased as Pirate for his grandfather's sake, who falls in love on a voyage from Jamaica.
- Harry MostynA reckless sixteen-year-old from Barbados who signs on with Captain Morgan to learn the trade of piracy.
- Tom ChistA foundling washed ashore in a box, who spies on Captain Kidd's men and follows a trail of buried treasure.
- BlackbeardThe roaring pirate of the Carolina coast, who blockades Charleston and swears only he and the devil know where his money lies.
- Hiram WhiteA slow-spoken, strong miller of Lewes, ridiculed by neighbors, who tries to keep a promise to his dying father.
- James MainwaringA navy lieutenant who loves a Quaker's niece in secret and hunts the pirate Captain Scarfield around the Bahamas.
- Jonathan RuggA tall, sober Quaker clerk from Philadelphia who finds more adventure in one Kingston night than he ever wanted.
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- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read today.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Howard Pyles Buch der Piraten in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Howard Pyles Buch der Piraten
by Howard Pyle · 1921
A Quaker clerk in Kingston is handed an ivory ball and finds that three men will kill to hold it.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Why does a touch of wickedness make a good story so much fun? Howard Pyle opens his Book of Pirates with that question, then answers it with history and tales.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Piracy grew out of the war with Spain
Pyle begins with history. Piracy, he says, did not spring up suddenly. It grew from the private raids of Elizabethan sailors like Drake, who were praised at home for taking Spanish treasure, and from there into buccaneering and true piracy.
The buccaneers begin as French hunters on Hispaniola, then move to nearby Tortuga to cure wild beef for passing ships. Then Pierre le Grand takes a Spanish ship with twenty-eight men, a pistol and a cutlass each, and the hunters decide that piracy pays better. When sea prizes dry up, Lewis Scot sacks Campeche, and François l'Olonoise plunders Maracaibo and Gibraltar with great cruelty.
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What is Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates about?
It joins a short history of buccaneers and marooners, with Morgan and Blackbeard, to seven adventure stories about treasure, ghosts, loyalty and disguise. The tales stand alone, so you can read them in any order.
Is Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates a true story?
Part of it is. The opening chapter draws on old accounts of real pirates such as Henry Morgan, Avary and Blackbeard. The tales that follow are fiction, built on those legends and on colonial history.
Who is Captain Morgan in the book?
Henry Morgan is the Welsh buccaneer Pyle calls the greatest of them all. He sacks Porto Bello and Panama in the history chapter, and he returns in a story as the captain who takes young Harry Mostyn to sea.
The author
Howard Pyle
1853–1911 · American illustrator and author
Howard Pyle (1853–1911) was an American illustrator and author born in Wilmington, Delaware. He wrote The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883), Men of Iron (1891), and The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903). He lived mainly in Wilmington and moved to Florence, Italy, in 1910, dying there in 1911.
More by Howard Pyle
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