Howard Pyle S Book of Pirates : 9781438505213 : 12 Nov 2008 : Howard Pyle (1853 - 1911) was an American illustrator and writer of books for children. In 1900 he founded the Brandywine school of art and illustration. He is best known for his classic The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood and a 4 volume work on King Arthur. Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates; Fiction, Fact & Fancy concerning the Buccaneers & marooners of the Spanish Main was written for children. Pyle has a gift for making his characters spring from the page as real flesh and blood people. Pyle begins with the lure of the pirate life, which lurks beneath the surface of many a respectable person. "WHY is it that a little spice of deviltry lends not an unpleasantly titillating twang to the great mass of respectable flour that goes to make up the pudding of our modern civilization? And pertinent to this question another--Why is it that the pirate has, and always has had, a certain lurid glamour of the heroical enveloping him