Captain Johnson's true identity

[AliasGraceO'Malley]

History of Notorious Pirates - I know there was some debate over the actual author of this book. And I knew that there were alot of experts who believed it was done by Dafoe, but I didn't know there was actual proof.

If that be the case how can they print an edition with DeFoe listed as the author as in this copyright 1999 on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&category=29327

[Jolie Rouge]

Well Grace, there be no actual proof what I 'ave seen. However, Defoe 'as been reckoned ta alot o' works that he didn't personally grace wit his name. When he was penning his works he oft did so under assumed names, being that it was risky ta use yer own due ta persecution from the upper class. Some widely regarded works o' his (sich as Robinson Crusoe I believe) never had is name on 'em. At one point scholars got a wee bit carried away in their push ta 'ave his works get their proper credit, and made a list o' somethin like a couple hundred that they insisted were his. These 'ave since been wittled down greatly, however when it came ta capt. Johnson's piece it was never really resolved. So some publishers credit one name, whilst others credit another. I 'ave two copys of the book printed in the last five years, each with a different author. One 'as a preface for it beein' defoe, one against.

[Red Maria]

The idea that Defoe wrote GHP was first promelgated by Prof. John Robert Moore in 1932. He was a DeFoe scholar at Indiana University. Moore used comparisions of the language etc. of GHP and other Defoe works such as under other psydenums such as "The Life & Adventures of the Famous Capt. Singleton" a work published a year after "Robinson Crusoe" was published as an *autobigraphy* of a pirate. He as used the fact that DeFoe was well traveled, had a journalist eye for a good story etc. as basis for his hypothosis. He published his conclusions in 1939 as "Defoe in the Pillory & Other Stuides". He was so convincing in his agrument he got many libraries around the world to catalogue the book under Defoe's name.

Then in 1988 two men named P.N. Furbank & W.R Owens debunked the entire hypothosis in a book called "The Cannoization of Daniel Defoe" citing Moore for shoddy & biased schoalrship and pretty much ripping apart his evidence. If you have a copy of GHP with the intro by David Cordingly there some information about it. Libraries today catalogue the book under Johnson not Defoe, though here at the Huntignton you'll find copies under both names depending which edition was cataloged when. Often a note is added as *attributed* to Defoe. I myself think there was a man named Capt. Johnson who wrote GHP. Then again I think William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet and the his other plays and not the Earl of Oxford. ;-)

[AliasGraceO'Malley]

Then in 1988 two men named P.N. Furbank & W.R Owens debunked the entire hypothosis in a book called "The Cannoization of Daniel Defoe" citing Moore for shoddy & biased schoalrship and pretty much ripping apart his evidence. If you have a copy of GHP with the intro by David Cordingly there some information about it. Libraries today catalogue the book under Johnson not Defoe[/code]

This is why I was surprised to find a book printed as late as 1999 with Defoe listed as author, not as side note but as author.

[TalesOfTheSevenSeas]

One other additional note to all the other great info above on Defoe vs. Johnson- I recall that they have been unable to locate any record of there having been a "Captain Charles Johnson" that could possibly be attributed with the authorship of the General History of the Pirates.

Another cool controversy is over the History's accounts themselves- Are they fact or fiction or some of both? Many of the pirates are known to have existed and no one disputes that- but there are some pirates in the book (such as Mission and Cornelius) that some critics claim are complete fabrications. We just don't know for sure.

Whoever "Johnson" was, he seems to have had at least some level of contact with either crewmen who sailed with the pirates or pirates themselves.

Interviewing pirates doesn't seem to have been a popular passtime and the General History is the best we've got in contemporary accounts.

Personally, I love it. But I read it with a cautious grain of salt and hope that as more research is done and more old papers come out of storage, that some of the mysteries surrounding this book will be solved!

Regardless of whether it is fact or fiction, I do respect it as an amazing historic document in itself, and a tribute to a dark, shady part of history that no one else had the cajones to touch in the time when it took place.

A hearty toast to Captain Charles Johnson, whomever he may be, for having bullocks of iron!!

[Captain Sage]

Man! You fellows & fellowesses are some of the most studious, intelligent-seeming rogues I've ever read messages from! You could write your own books. :)

It sure makes me look a far sight better to be found runnin' in such erudite circles.

Cheers to the lot of ya'!

Captain Sage