Howard Pyle

Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates

Publisher Marketing: WHY is it that a little spice of deviltry lends not an unpleasantly titillating twang to the great mass of respectable flour that goes to make up the pudding of our modern civilization? And pertinent to this question another-Why is it that the pirate has, and always has had, a certain lurid glamour of the heroical enveloping him round about? Is there, deep under the accumulated debris of culture, a hidden groundwork of the old-time savage? Is there even in these well-regulated times an unsubdued nature in the respectable mental household of every one of us that still kicks against the pricks of law and order? To make my meaning more clear, would not every boy, for instance-that is, every boy of any account-rather be a pirate captain than a Member of Parliament? And we ourselves-would we not rather read such a story as that of Captain Avery's capture of the East Indian treasure ship, with its beautiful princess and load of jewels (which gems he sold by the handful, history sayeth, to a Bristol merchant), than, say, one of Bishop Atterbury's sermons, or the goodly Master Robert Boyle's religious romance of "Theodora and Didymus"? It is to be apprehended that to the unregenerate nature of most of us there can be but one answer to such a query. Contributor Bio:  Pyle, Howard Howard Pyle was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1853. Having studied painting at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, he was one of the most influential illustrators of his time, known for his imagination and detail. He also taught painting and wrote many stories for young people, illustrating his own works. He died in 1911.