The Map Thief: The Gripping Story Of An Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps
by Michael Blanding
Buy on AmazonMaps have long elicited a special fascination -- both as practical tools and as beautiful works of art. But to collectors the map trade can be cutthroat, with quirky and sometimes disreputable characters in search of a finite number of extremely rare objects. This is the story of antiquarian map dealer E. Forbes Smiley, who for years doubled as a map thief until he was finally arrested for slipping maps out of books in the Yale University library.
Recommended by
"I buy one wall calendar every year, and every year it’s the same kind: reproductions of old maps from the Age of Exploration. I love them for their beauty, for the sense of adventure they represent and for the hilarious misunderstandings. (California as an island, for instance.) But I didn’t know much about them until I read The Map Thief. In it, Michael Blanding tells the story of E. Forbes Smiley III, a dealer of rare, antique maps who, when he got in over his head, started stealing — and selling — maps from prominent libraries. Using wonderful reproductions, Blanding teaches the reader about the political, economic and practical uses of mapmaking since the 15th century. It makes the maps seem ever more precious, and Smiley’s crimes more monstrous."
NPR Books We Love — 2014 · apps.npr.org
Patrick Collison's Bookshelf · patrickcollison.com