Pirates! or, the Cruise of the Black Revenge. A Tale of the Spanish Main

Chicago: Laurence C. Woodworth, 1918. Second Edition. Leather with Marbled Boards. Very Good/No Dust Jacket As Issued. Illustrations by Gustave Baumann (1881-1971)..

Bound in handsome red morocco with four spine bands; over marbled boards. 7.25 inches tall; Unpaginated - title, 15 folded sheets plus an end-sheet comprising 32 leaves; 13 woodcuts; Title stamped on the front; wood engraved illustrations. Second Printing.

Designed by Lawrence Woodworth and originally published in Chicago in a limited edition for the Brothers of the Book. This is the second edition, published by Woodworth.  The woodcuts are from scenes carved by Gustave Baumann two-thirds of the size of the originals.

The bindings are tight and square. Text clean, light even toning. Moderate shelf handling wear. The binding was done by Dorothy Barrett Moulton with her name stamped.. Embark on an entertaining journey with Captain Hawkes and his pirate crew in this amusing play in verse. Pirates are great fun, as we all know, until they are not. An engaging voyage filled with laughter, mischief, and surprising turns on the open waters a rollercoaster ride of humor, mayhem, and unexpected twists on the high seas.

Background Information:
Gustave Baumann was an American printmaker and painter, and one of the leading figures of the color woodcut revival in America. His works have been shown at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and the New Mexico Museum of Art. He is also recognized for his role in the 1930s as area coordinator of the Public Works of Art Project of the Works Progress Administration. [wiki]

Kendall Banning was a World War I veteran, the author of over a dozen books (including books on Annapolis and West Point), and an editor of Cosmopolitan, Popular Radio, and Hearst Magazine.

During the 1929 debate on revising the tariff legislation that allowed United States customs inspectors to ban and seize imported books they deemed "obscene", Banning reprinted his 1926 Censored Mother Goose Rhymes - the traditional rhymes with words blacked out to suggest obscenity, which he dedicated to "the censors of America" - and had it distributed to members of Congress. Gertrude Stein owned a copy of the 1929 edition.

The publisher, Laurence Woodworth was the scrivener for the Brothers of the Book, a small private press "made up of those who like well-printed books" based in Chicago and founded in 1898.

Ref: Private Press in the Midwest; SAAM; Fandom; Garoffolo, Vincent. "The Woodblock art of Gustave Baumann." In New Mexico Artists, New Mexico Artist Series No. 3, pp. 35-44.