Katherine Howe (editor) is a bestselling historian and novelist and the direct descendant of a nineteenth-century sailor who battled pirates on the high seas as well as three women who were tried for witchcraft in Salem. She is the editor of The Penguin Book of Witches; the author of the novel A True Account- Hannah Masury's Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself, the New York Times bestselling novels The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and The House of Velvet and Glass, and the young adult novels Conversion and The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen; and the coauthor with Anderson Cooper of the New York Times bestsellers Vanderbilt- The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty and Astor- The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune. Born and raised in Houston, she has taught at Boston University and Cornell, and lives with her family in New England. She is an amateur sailor.
“Thrilling. Romantic. Fascinating. And also scary . . . A picture of pirates as they really were.” —Parade “For those interested in pirates, this book is a must read. . . . Howe’s detailed account takes the reader way beyond the people and crafts of familiar Disneyesque tales. The expression ‘truth is stranger than fiction” definitely applies to piracy.” —Newport This Week