Few know that Captain Kidd, one of the most notorious pirates to ever prowl the seas, had an accomplice, a behind-the-scenes player who enabled his plundering and helped him outpace his enemies. That accomplice was his wife, Sarah Kidd, whose extraordinary life is a lesson in reinvention and resourcefulness. Twice widowed by twenty-one and a successful New York merchant in her own right, Sarah secretly aided and abetted her husband, fighting alongside him against his accusers. Marshaling in newly discovered primary source documents, historian and journalist Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos reconstructs Sarah’s extraordinary life, uncovering a rare example of the kind of life that pirate wives lived during the Golden Age of Piracy.

Dr. Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos is a women’s historian with a special interest in 18th century maritime history. She is the author of two non-fiction books: The Pirate Next Door: The Untold Story of Eighteenth Century Pirates’ Wives, Families and Communities and The Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Southern Living, Virginia Business and other outlets. She lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts with her husband, David.