The Map Thief delves into the untold history of this fascinating high-stakes criminal and the inside story of the industry that consumed him.Īcclaimed reporter Michael Blanding has interviewed all the key players in this stranger-than-fiction story, and shares the fascinating histories of maps that charted the New World, and how they went from being practical instruments to quirky heirlooms to highly coveted objects. Forbes Smiley spent years doubling as a map thief -until he was finally arrested slipping maps out of books in the Yale University library. Once considered a respectable antiquarian map dealer, E. But to those who collect them, the map trade can be a cutthroat business, inhabited by quirky and sometimes disreputable characters in search of a finite number of extremely rare objects. Maps have long exerted a special fascination on viewers-both as beautiful works of art and as practical tools to navigate the world. The story of an infamous crime, a revered map dealer with an unsavory secret, and the ruthless subculture that consumed him Tracking a series of brazen thefts and a subculture as obsessive as the oenophiles in The Billionaire's Vinegar, Blanding has pieced together an unforgettable story of high-stakes crime. The Map Thief interweaves Smiley's escapades with the stories of the explorers and mapmakers he knew better than anyone.
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