Charles Johnson (pirate biographer)

Captain Charles Johnson was the British author of the 1724 book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates, whose identity remains a mystery. No record exists of a captain by this name with Johnson generally considered a pseudonym for one of London's writer-publishers. Some scholars have suggested that "Charles Johnson" was actually Daniel Defoe writing under a pen name, but this is disputed. The prime source for the biographies of many well known pirates, Johnson gave an almost mythical status to the more colourful characters, and it is likely that the author used considerable artistic licence in his accounts of pirate conversations. First appearing in Charles Rivington's shop in London, the book sold so well that by 1726 an enlarged fourth edition had appeared. English naval historian David Cordingly writes: "it has been said, and there seems no reason to question this, that Captain Johnson created the modern conception of pirates."

Johnson's identity is unknown, but he demonstrates a knowledge of the sailor's speech and life, suggesting that he could have been an actual sea captain. He could also have been a professional writer using a pseudonym who was well versed in the sea. If this is true, the name may have been chosen to reflect playwright Charles Johnson, who had a play called The Successful Pyrate performed in 1712. The play addressed the career of Henry Every, and it had been something of a scandal for seeming to praise a criminal. Following the book, many biographies and catalogs of criminals were published, including catalogs of highwaymen and prostitutes. This theory suggests that the "Charles Johnson" of the pirate catalog was merely taking part in a burgeoning industry in criminal biography.

In 1934, John Robert Moore, an American scholar of Daniel Defoe, announced his theory that Johnson was really Daniel Defoe writing pseudonymously. He eventually published Defoe in the Pillory and Other Studies, in which he compared the style and contents of A General History to Defoe's writing, noting that the frequent meditations on morality are similar to Defoe's work, and that Defoe wrote several other works on pirates. Moore's study and his reputation as a Defoe scholar was so convincing that most libraries recataloged A General History under Defoe's name. However, in 1988, scholars P. N. Furbank and W. R. Owen attacked the theory in The Canonisation of Daniel Defoe, in which they point out that there is no documentary evidence linking Johnson to Defoe, and that there are discrepancies between A General History and Defoe's known works.

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