Pirates Old and New

London: Selwyn & Blount (1928) Ltd, 1931. Hardcover. Very Good+/Very Good. Dark brown cloth with gilt stamped spine. Bottom corner of front cover worn (shelf-rubbed), else an attractive copy. Some moderate foxing on title page; interior is generally clean and unmarked. Dust jacket spine a tad darkened; dime-sized tide mark over the printed price on spine; in an archival mylar sleeve. Title page, half-title, and chapter head woodcut vignettes by Clyde A. Nordquist. 382 pages. Rare in jacket. A collection of eleven stories, accounts with invented dialog of historic pirates, ranging from the days of antiquity to the age of the steamship. Included are ''Micio'' who kidnapped Julius Caesar in the Mediterranean, Blackbeard, the Rhode Island pirate Thomas Tew, Libertatia's Capt. James [Francois] Misson, Captain Morgan, Captain Thomas Green, Francois [Lalonois] l'Olonnais of the Caribbean, Henry Avery ''King of the Pirates,'' Zheng Yi Sao [Mrs. Ching], Jean Lafitte, W. K. Thompson, and the tale of the Scottish steamer SS Ferret. Joseph Gollomb (1881-1950) was a Russian-born author, novelist, drama critic, and investigative reporter. He earned his M.A. in 1908 at Columbia University and then taught at the socialist Rand School of Social Science in New York City. He was employed by several newspapers, including The New York Post, The New York Call, The Nation, New York Evening Post, and the Evening Mail.