Talk:Mary Read

message: WikiProject Biography Assessment
The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. -- Yamara 05:24, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Wikipedia:WikiProject_Biography/Assessment#Class_parameter|Biography assessment rating]] comment 

message: The Captain Johnson/DeFoe History of the Pyrates is certainly a compendium and compilation of information.  However, although it mimics a work of history or non-fiction very effectively, it isn't really a standard history that we can use as a primary source without describing it in some detail in the entry.  Although parts of it follow newspaper accounts closely, other parts describe people and events that never existed and were invented by the author.  (DeFoe invented several characters, events, and details for thematic or narrative effect.) Our problem as present-day readers is that it wasn't 18th century literary practice to explain to the reader that a text was a mixture of reportage and invention. Manuel Schonhorn's extensive scholarly introduction to the 1999 Dover Press edition is essential reading. (This was originally published in 1972; Schonhorn updated the introduction and bibliography for the Dover edition of 1999.)
We should revise the entry to reflect that the information we have on MR is primarily derived from this problematic single account (and the descriptions of the trial).  
One last thing: I also think there's a big problem with the way the recent History Channel documentary is being used as a source to substantiate information in the entry.  I believe the entry should actually list who actually provided the information that's cited from the documentary: did the "talking head" from the documentary provide a source for their information, or were they speculating on camera?  Have they written an article or book that we can cite in the entry?  Most importantly, could a researcher check the speaker's sources in order to independently verify what they have said (about MR's child, for example)? --Galliaz 15:24, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Citations and Sources

message: Captain Charles Johnson's work, A General History of the Pyrates, needs to be reread.  He never says that Mary Read and Anne Bonny were romantically involved.  He says that Bonny was attracted to Read and therefore told her that she was a woman.  Read knew immediately why Bonny was telling her this and so knew that her secret could not be kept.  Therefore, she then told Bonny that she herself was a woman.  So, there never was a romantic relationship.  However, Calico Jack was upset by the close relationship between his lover, Bonny, and Read, whom he still assumed to be a man.  So, Bonny told Jack that Read was indeed a woman in order to quell his jealousy.
Also, Read did not show her breasts to Calico Jack.  The text clearly states that she did this to a passenger that their crew had recently captured and force to stay on.  Read fell so in love with this man that when he began to show signs of friendship with her, she was not careful about protecting her secret.  One day she accidently exposed white "very white" breasts to the man.  Yet still she did not admit her sex.  It was not until he pressed her on the issue continually that she told him that she was in fact a woman.  They quickly fell in love.  In fact, there is a long and quite compelling story about their love, including the poing that this man was the father of the child the saved her from being hanged.  This story should be included in this article.
--Bt1159 19:15, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Pyrates" does not say any of that. 

message: I'm guessing some kids were researching a project, and maybe decided to fiddle with the article by inserting words like "sexy" and "hoes". My favourite line is "Read then found work as a football...". Anybody care to re-write?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.0.222.167 (talk) 21:01, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pesky kids 

message: Under early life, first sentence: Mary Read was born in Wisconsin to the widow of a sea captain. 
however, to the right of the article: Place of birth:  London 
:)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.10.127.123 (talk) 07:07, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Birth? 

message: The usage of  is under discussion, see talk:Mark Read (singer) -- 70.24.244.161 (talk) 06:51, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: "{{noredirect|Mark Read}}"

message: I cleaned up the references sections. This was in-text in that section, but I'm not sure what it relates to, so I'm putting it here in case anyone else does: 
 Johnson, Captain Charles, ed. Hayward Arthur L., A history of the robberies and murders of the most notorious pirates from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence to the present year, London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd. First published in 1724, with the second edition published 1728, both versions attributed to Daniel Defoe. The two editions are very different, with the second edition much less accurate than the first when compared to court records. In the second edition however, no such accuracy is even attempted. In particular, the lurid details of the capture of the merchant ship the Neptune by Charles Vane in September 1718, conflicts entirely with the court records of both Charles Vane and Robert Deal, his quartermaster.
It could be a version of this book, but I don't have a copy of both editions:
*
Lithium (talk) 13:30, 15 June 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  References 

message: The article claims that Mary Read may have seen military service in the Nine Years War (1688-1697). Isn't this unlikely due to her age. If born c. 1690, she was at most 7-years-old when the War ended. Hom many 7-years-old see military action? Dimadick (talk) 08:09, 19 May 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nine Years War 

message: "She was captured alongside Rackham and Mary Read in October 1720" is the stated date of capture in the article on Anne Bonny. However, the one on Mary Read says "[Read], Bonny and Rackham were arrested in November 1720." These are inconsistent- which is correct? 
I'm creating this new section on both talk pages, as I couldn't determine which one it ought go on.
TypistMonkey (talk) 05:06, 18 July 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Date of Capture?