Howard Pyle

Signed first edition with seven Merle Johnson watercolors of piratical scenes.

• Howard Pyle (American).
• Compiled by Merle Johnson.
• New York: Harper & Brothers, 1921.
• xvii, [1], 247 pp.
• Quarto.
• Illustrated with 36 full-page plates, 12 in color, on glossy paper, and numerous illustrations in black and white throughout the text.
• Extra-illustrated on the end sheets with 7 watercolor drawings (5 full-page) by Merle Johnson, signed “Merle Johnson” or "M.J.".
• Number 21 of 50 copies printed on Japan vellum stock and signed by Merle Johnson on the limitation page. 
• Bound in publisher's cloth spine and boards with a color plate affixed to front cover.
• Housed in a custom cloth slipcase with a red morocco label.

The deluxe edition on Japan vellum of this collection of pirate tales and illustrations by Howard Pyle, compiled by Merle Johnson. This copy marvelously extra-illustrated by Merle Johnson with 7 full- and double-page watercolor illustrations of pirates. These are not the grim, hardened pirates of Pyle's illustrations — Johnson's pirates are drawn in a humorous, cartoon style that blends the historical and the modern. In one double-page spread a flapper in evening dress guides a pirate towards the end of a plank by the barrel of a gun. Another double-page spread at the rear of the book shows a pirate burying his chest of treasure as a film crew shoots in the background.