查尔斯·约翰逊船长

查尔斯·约翰逊船长是1724年出版的海盗通史一书的作者，其身份仍然是个谜。迄今没有任何资料显示有船长叫过这个名字，查尔斯·约翰逊船长一般被认为是伦敦一位作家兼出版商的笔名。一些学者认为作者实际上是丹尼尔·笛福，但这存在争议。

Captain Charles Johnson was the British author of the 1724 book A General History of the Pyrates, whose identity remains a mystery. No record exists of a captain by this name, and "Captain Charles Johnson" is generally considered a pen name for one of London's writer-publishers. Some scholars have suggested that the author was actually Daniel Defoe, but this is widely regarded by historians as incorrect.

A prime source for the biographies of many well known pirates of the era, Johnson gave an almost mythical status to the more colourful characters, and it is likely that the author used considerable artistic licence in their 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."

Character of the author

Johnson's identity is unknown, but they demonstrate a knowledge of the sailor's speech and life, suggesting that they could have been an actual sea captain. They 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 and preceding 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.

Identity of author

The author has remained unknown in spite of numerous attempts by historians to discover his identity. There has been no record found of anyone with the name Charles Johnson serving as a captain in any capacity, save forty-two years before the publication of A General History. Some have suggested that the "Captain" was in fact a common pirate, but again, there is no record of this man.

Daniel Defoe

In 1932, literary scholar and writer John Robert Moore posited that Daniel Defoe be acknowledged the author of A General History. After years of research in connection with a collection of Defoe's works, Moore published a study of his findings, detailing his argument for Defoe's authorship of this, and other works. Moore declared that A General History was "substantially" a work of Defoe based on writing style (including frequent meditations on morality similar to in Defoe's work) and content similar to other pieces that have been attributed to Defoe. Moore argued that Defoe's interest in subjects such as "seafaring" and criminals (including pirates) shows that A General History falls squarely into his repertoire. Moore posited that not only could other works be used to confirm that Defoe wrote A General History, but that A General History could be used to endorse his authorship of those same works. Another point that Moore counted on to validate his claims was that many authors, to include historians, had used A General History of the Pyrates as a source of information for their own writings.

Moore's study and his reputation as a Defoe scholar was so convincing that most libraries recataloged A General History under Defoe's name.

Criticism

However, in 1988, scholars P. N. Furbank and W. R. Owens 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.