Ten Pound Island Book Company

Old, Rare And Out of Print Books, Manuscripts And Charts Pertaining To The Sea

The Pirates Own Book, or Authentic Narratives of the Lives, Exploits, and Executions of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers.

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Item #46682
The Pirates Own Book, or Authentic Narratives of the Lives, Exploits, and Executions of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers.
(Ellms, Charles ).
( 1855), Portland.
19 cm. xii-432 pp. b/w wood engravings
Price: $300

First published in the 1830s, Ellms’s compilation shows a curious ambivalence toward pirates and pirating in that the narratives are emphatic about the harm and evil of piracy, and almost equally interested to show it as a human endeavor, whose practitioners range from Alexander the Great to Blackbeard. With wonderfully over-the-top wood engravings. Occasional spotting and foxing, a couple of signatures pulled but holding well. Overall, a good copy of a legendary American pirate book in publisher’s blindstamped cloth binding with gilt decoration on backstrip.