The Best Pirate Stories Ever Told

A collection that includes both well-loved tales and little-known stories about pirates both mythical and real.

Over the years, thousands of tales, both true and fantastic, have been told about the dastardly thievery of pirates, and their rum-drunk exploits and high-seas violence never fail to delight. Compiled here are more than 100 of the very best pirate yarns ever created on history's most debaucherous scalawags. The stories, songs, and verses include writing by Daniel Defoe, Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad, James Fenimore Cooper, Robert Louis Stevenson, and many more.

Presents a collection of ghost stories from such authors as Louisa May Alcott, H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Joseph Conrad.

This collection of classic tales comprises over thirty accounts of true-life adventure taken from contemporary memoirs, letters, and journals. They span the years from 1800 to the end of the twentieth century, in a period which can be termed the modern age of exploration. Among the writers are: Ernest Shackleton Douglas Mawson Salomon Andrée Sebastian Snow Ed Drummond Edmund Hillary Maurice Herzog Lewis and Clark Thor Heyerdahl Theodore Roosevelt Jacques Cousteau Sven Hedin Norbert Casteret Jim Corbett Charles A. Lindbergh The Best Survival Stories Ever Told recounts stories of ordinary mortals who achieved extraordinary things. Spanning the ice-locked Poles and the endless deserts of Arabia to the storm-tossed South Atlantic, the rain forests of the Amazon, and sheer peaks of the Himalayas, it charts the dangerous relationship between men and nature.

Collects stories capturing different aspects of what it means to be a cowboy, from authors including Mark Twain, Andy Adams, and Zane Grey.

The Greatest Cowboy Stories Ever Told includes twenty-three exciting stories from a variety of contributors, such as Mark Twain, Karl May, Ned Buttline, O. Henry, Bret Harte, Stephan Krane, Frederic Remington, Zane Grey, Max Brand, and Owen Webster.

Ready for adventure? Gear up for an unforgettable ride on the high seas. This collection of swashbuckling tales and rip-roaring yarns will provide hours of entertainment. It's a must-read for any fan of classic pirate lore from the golden age of the genre.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY CHICAGO TRIBUNE • A thrilling adventure of danger and deep-sea diving, historic mystery and suspense, by the author of Shadow Divers Finding and identifying a pirate ship is the hardest thing to do under the sea. But two men—John Chatterton and John Mattera—are willing to risk everything to find the Golden Fleece, the ship of the infamous pirate Joseph Bannister. At large during the Golden Age of Piracy in the seventeenth century, Bannister should have been immortalized in the lore of the sea—his exploits more notorious than Blackbeard’s, more daring than Kidd’s. But his story, and his ship, have been lost to time. If Chatterton and Mattera succeed, they will make history—it will be just the second time ever that a pirate ship has been discovered and positively identified. Soon, however, they realize that cutting-edge technology and a willingness to lose everything aren’t enough to track down Bannister’s ship. They must travel the globe in search of historic documents and accounts of the great pirate’s exploits, face down dangerous rivals, battle the tides of nations and governments and experts. But it’s only when they learn to think and act like pirates—like Bannister—that they become able to go where no pirate hunters have gone before. Fast-paced and filled with suspense, fascinating characters, history, and adventure, Pirate Hunters is an unputdownable story that goes deep to discover truths and souls long believed lost. Praise for Pirate Hunters “You won’t want to put [it] down.”—Los Angeles Times “An exceptional adventure . . . Highly recommended to readers who delight in adventure, suspense, and the thrill of discovering history at their fingertips.”—Library Journal (starred review) “A terrific read . . . The book gallops along at a blistering pace, shifting us deftly between the seventeenth century and the present day.”—Diver “Nonfiction with the trademarks of a novel: the plots and subplots, the tension and suspense . . . [Kurson has] found gold.”—The Dallas Morning News “Rollicking . . . a fascinating [story] about the world of pirates, piracy, and priceless treasures.”—The Boston Globe “[Kurson’s] narration is just as engrossing as the subject.”—The Christian Science Monitor “A wild ride [and an] extraordinary adventure . . . Kurson’s own enthusiasm, combined with his copious research and an eye for detail, makes for one of the most mind-blowing pirate stories of recent memory, one that even the staunchest landlubber will have a hard time putting down.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “The two contemporary pirate-ship seekers of Mr. Kurson’s narrative are as daring, intrepid, tough and talented as Blood and Sparrow—and Bannister. . . . As depicted by the author, they are real-life Hemingway heroes.”—The Wall Street Journal “[Kurson] takes his knowledge of the underwater world and applies it to the ‘Golden Age of Piracy’ . . . thrillingly detailing the highs and lows of chasing not just gold and silver but also history.”—Booklist “A great thriller full of tough guys and long odds . . . and: It’s all true.”—Lee Child