1836 FINE LEATHER THE PIRATE SIR WALTER SCOTT SHIPWRECK FAMOUS PIRATE JOHN GOW
Item History & Price
From 1836, this is the classic The Pirate, by Sir Walter Scott, Parker's Edition, as published by Samuel H. Parker, Boston, for Desilver, Thomas & Co., Philadelphia. Sized 8x5 inches, bound in calf leather with two Morocco leather spine labels lettered in gilt. An owner name Sophie de Lemater, 1840. In two volumes bound together, over 500 pages. Very good condition.
The Pirate is a novel by Walter Scott, based roughly on the life of John Gow who features as Captain Clevela...nd. The setting is the southern tip of the main island of Shetland (which Scott visited in 1814), around 1700. It was published in 1822, the year after it was finished and the lighthouse at Sumburgh Head began to operate.
In 1814 Scott had taken a six-week cruise with the Northern Lighthouse Commissioners. He kept a diary (eventually published in his biography by J. G. Lockhart), and when he came to write The Pirate he was able to draw on it for many details about an otherwise unfamiliar part of Scotland. He accumulated a small collection of pirate literature, the most useful being History of the Lives and Actions of the most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers, &c. To which is added, A Genuine Account of the Voyages and Plunders of the most noted Pirates by Captain Charles Johnson (1742). This was supplemented by an account of the pirate John Gow supplied by Alexander Peterkin, Sheriff-Substitute of Orkney and Zetland, published in 1822, the year of the novel's appearance, as Notes on Orkney and Zetland. Scott was also acquainted with several books on the northern isles from the seventeenth century to his own time which discussed the agricultural questions that occupy Triptolemus Yellowley's attention in the novel.
EditionsThe Pirate was published in three volumes by Constable and Ballantyne in Edinburgh on 24 December 1821 and by Hurst, Robinson, and Co. in London two days later. As with all the Waverley novels before 1827 publication was anonymous. It is unlikely that Scott was involved with the novel again until March and then August 1830 when he revised the text and provided an introduction and notes for the 'Magnum' edition in which it appeared as Volumes 24 and 25 in May and June 1831.
The Pirate is a novel by Walter Scott, based roughly on the life of John Gow who features as Captain Clevela...nd. The setting is the southern tip of the main island of Shetland (which Scott visited in 1814), around 1700. It was published in 1822, the year after it was finished and the lighthouse at Sumburgh Head began to operate.
In 1814 Scott had taken a six-week cruise with the Northern Lighthouse Commissioners. He kept a diary (eventually published in his biography by J. G. Lockhart), and when he came to write The Pirate he was able to draw on it for many details about an otherwise unfamiliar part of Scotland. He accumulated a small collection of pirate literature, the most useful being History of the Lives and Actions of the most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers, &c. To which is added, A Genuine Account of the Voyages and Plunders of the most noted Pirates by Captain Charles Johnson (1742). This was supplemented by an account of the pirate John Gow supplied by Alexander Peterkin, Sheriff-Substitute of Orkney and Zetland, published in 1822, the year of the novel's appearance, as Notes on Orkney and Zetland. Scott was also acquainted with several books on the northern isles from the seventeenth century to his own time which discussed the agricultural questions that occupy Triptolemus Yellowley's attention in the novel.
EditionsThe Pirate was published in three volumes by Constable and Ballantyne in Edinburgh on 24 December 1821 and by Hurst, Robinson, and Co. in London two days later. As with all the Waverley novels before 1827 publication was anonymous. It is unlikely that Scott was involved with the novel again until March and then August 1830 when he revised the text and provided an introduction and notes for the 'Magnum' edition in which it appeared as Volumes 24 and 25 in May and June 1831.
