Literary pirate ultimately hails from the East (4)
I believe the answer is:
smee
'literary pirate' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'ultimately hails from the east' is the wordplay.
'ultimately' suggests the final letters.
'from' becomes 'me' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'the east' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
The last letter of 'hails' is 's'.
's'+'me'+'e'='SMEE'
(Other definitions for smee that I've seen before include "Simpered oddly" , "Captain Hook's right-hand man" , "Peter Pan pirate" , "Literary pirate" , "pirate > BIRD" .)