rr, matey! Give no quarter to these landlubbers! They want to steal our pieces o' eight and buried treasure! Batten down the hatches, and send ‘em straight to Davy Jones' Locker!
The pirate's life has long intrigued people of all ages. The tales of Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Amaro Parso and William Kidd have earned their rightful place in the history books. Lord Byron's The Corsair (1814), Sir Walter Scott's The Pirate (1821-22) and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883) captured the imagination of curious readers. Film versions, including Long John Silver, Captain Blood, the comedic Yellowbeard and Peter Pan's great adversary, Captain Hook, continue to amaze us. It's also impossible to forget the occasional young pirate who comes waltzing to your door at Halloween looking for sugary treasures.
Which brings us to Eric Jay Dolin's new book, Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates. The historian and author acknowledges that “many people view pirates in a romantic light,” but he emphatically states “there was absolutely nothing romantic about them, other than the legends woven about their exploits after they were gone.” While America's pirates can't necessarily “compete with the magnetic charms and witty repartee of Captain Jack Sparrow,” among others, he believes their stories are “even more astonishing and fascinating than any fictional pirate adventure ever written or cast on the silver screen.”
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