If by "in their time" you mean while they were active pirates, not really - but in the years after happened quite a bit. Books such as Alexandre Exquemelin's History of the Bouccaneers of America and Charles Johnson's A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates brought much attention to the story of the pirates in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In the case of Johnson, his work mixed in fiction with fact in some parts of his book (the early eighteenth century being notorious for such actions, now referred to as "factual fiction"). Blackbeard, for instance, can probably thank Johnson for really helping bring forward the actions of his career to the status it has today. The famous descriptions of Blackbeard all pretty much go back to Johnson. But, these descriptions cannot be traced or verified by any other accounts. Johnson's chapter on him is one of the chapters this more than likely moderately to heavily influenced by "factual fiction." Other publications such as newspapers helped popularize pirates as well. Publications about criminals were popular, so newspapers that featured reports about their actions and trial accounts came out regularly. William Kidd had his trial in London and received a lot of attention in publications (probably because it was politicized so the Tories could use it as bludgeon against the Whigs that originally invested in Kidd, since Kidd started as a privateer). When compared to Henry Every though, it seems like nothing. After his actions in the Indian Ocean, his story became mythologized on a huge scale compared to anyone else at the time. He had period plays and books written about his career (with lots of fiction mixed in). A story line that he returned to Madagascar and set up a little pirate empire there with many men and ships went around quite a bit.