Saturday, August 25, 2012

John Gow

Sir Walter Scott's novel The Pirate was based on the adventures of a Scottish/Orkneyan sailor named John Gow.  I could not find a copy of this book in The Jacksonville Public Library and it was not available on Project Gutenberg for a download.  Happily google books had a copy and I used ecalibre to make copies available to my Nook and my wife's Kindle.  First editions are nice to own but not carrying around in a book bag for reading.
Today was the annual celebration of Scott's birthday with a film, shepherd's pie and dance.  The best film I could find was about a Scottish pirate named Captain Kidd.  Not the same as John Gow, but their end was the same.  Well almost.  Gow apparently requested that his end be quick so the hangman grabbed Gow's legs for a quick dispatch but with the effect of snapping the rope and requiring Gow to be hung again.
A good read but apparently The Book Wraith can soon claim this book for his own unless someone puts it back on the library shelf or in the book store.