My thoughts on Capt Johnson's book

[lwhitehead]

Hi folks is it my thoughts that one of the most famous books on Pirates reads like it written by Investigative Hack or a Crime Hack, I mean it's read like it was written by a Reporter.

 

 

LW

[Mission]

Or perhaps like something lifted from an assortment of newspaper accounts with lurid bits of historical fiction randomly thrown in to either make a political point or at least keep it interesting?

[Fox]

It was written by a journalist (probably)

[lwhitehead]

Well since my Port Lucre stories is my Historical Parody of the Golden Age of Piracy in my setting Cap Charlie Johnson is Charlotte Johnson the Nelly Bly of my world a Muckraker,

 

 

LW

[lwhitehead]

Well the book reads like it was written by a Police or Crime Reporter in my mind at least.

 

LW

[Mission]

Read the version edited by Manuel Schonhorn, taking time to read the end notes for each chapter. He explains where everything came from in Johnson's book. Mostly it was newspaper accounts, public records and published court accounts. What Johnson did was sift and organize these otherwise dry, dull documents (trust me, I've read a lot of them) and the stuff he added is mostly regarded as being fictional like the story of Captain Misson, Blackbeard's supposed journal, philosophical speeches by some of the pirates and similar odds and ends.

The author of these books is widely believed these days to be journalist Nathaniel Mist. Ed explains the reasoning behind this pretty well in this posting.