A General History of the Pirates

First printed in London in 1724, this collection of pirate biographies did more than any other book to shape how the world pictures buccaneers. Its pages introduced buried treasure, the Jolly Roger, and the swaggering menace of figures such as Blackbeard, Bartholomew Roberts, Calico Jack Rackham, and the female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. The author hid behind the name Captain Charles Johnson, and his true identity has never been settled. Part reportage and part legend, the work blends real Atlantic and Caribbean raids with colorful invention, which is exactly why novelists from Stevenson onward mined it for generations. Free PDF and EPUB edition.