Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates: Fiction, Fact & Fancy Concerning the Buccaneers & Marooners of the Spanish Main

[2] xiv [1], 247 [5] pp; 12 colour plates and 24 full page drawings, plus illustrations in text, all by Howard Pyle. Tipped in illustration on page three as well as on front board. Date code of I-W indicates that this issue was printed in September 1922, a year after the first edition which was produced in two formats – a trade binding and 50 copies on Japanese Vellum.  This volume is quarter-bound in cloth over illustrated buff boards. Small folio. Boards a little rubbed at corners, more so on upper leading corner, and titles on spine faded. Dust jacket is chapped at edges with loss across top of front and rear and on lower rear corner; and has speckled marks, but remains in tact. Previous owner’s inscription on half title page, else internally clean crisp and bright. One plate page has been repaired, and dust jacket now in archival wrapper. Pirate gold and pirate adventure held for Howard Pyle – although he was a Quaker artist – and endless fascination; and with his pen and brush he was able to express all the roistering, adventurous, daredevil spirit for which the legendary pirates, such as Blue Beard and Blackbeard, stand. Mr Pyle’s well-deserved reputation as an artist rests today largely on his portrayals of pirates. This collection, now hard to find in early editions with dust jackets, of his pirate stories and pirate pictures will appeal to the collector of beautiful books as a fine example of American book-making in the 1920s. As a gift book for anyone who likes stories about pirates, its equal can’t be found.