John Paul Jones biography?

Does anyone here know a biography of John Paul Jones that they'd particularly recommend? Thanks!

I quite liked John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy by Evan Thomas.

Sincere thanks for the recommendation, Auror.

I have read that before he became famous Captain Jones did not actually have a middle name. This was very common in the nineteenth century, I am told. For instance, George Washington, and most of the founding fathers, did not have a middle name.
It has been related to me that the name 'Paul' was added to distinguish him in the public mind.
He is buried at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, which now has a visitor center and a U.S. Navy Museum and is open to the public at no charge.

I recommend highly Samuel Eliot Morison's John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (Boston: Little, Brown, 1959).

Thanks, DV. I have that one on my biography shelf at home, waiting to be attended to. Good to get the endorsement.

Captain Jones wasn't originally Captain Jones.

He was named John Paul. He later added Jones to his name. Why he did this not entirely clear but the most common explanation was to help him escape a murder charge, though some contend that it was in honor of the Jones family of Halifax, North Carolina.

Another Jones biography to consider is John Paul Jones: America's First Sea Warrior by Joseph Callo (Naval Institute Press, 2006).

There are reportedly 40 biographies of John Paul Jones. My favorite is probably Morrison's with Evan Thomas' recent biography a very close second.

The most influential biography of Jones was written by Augustus C. Buell in 1900 who freely fabricated letters and other correspondence to glorify Jones. Many of his forgeries are still quoted as authentic.

There is a fascinating article, The Reincarnation of John Paul Jones, by James C. Bradford which looks at how John Paul Jones has been used by the Navy and others particularly around the turn of the twentieth century.

http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/johnpauljones.htm

Try Fanning’s Narrative. Nathaniel Fanning served under John Paul Jones who turns out to have been a bit of a sociopath and uncommonly cruel, though that kind of behavior wasn’t unknown in that era.