The Map Thiefinterweaves Smiley’s escapades with the stories of the explorers and mapmakers he knew better than anyone. Tracking a series of brazen thefts and a subculture as obsessive as the oenophiles inThe Billionaire’s Vinegar, Blanding has pieced together an unforgettable story of high-stakes crime.
The story of an infamous crime, a respected map dealer, and the ruthless subculture that consumed him.
Once a respectable antiquarian map dealer, E. Forbes Smiley 111 spent years doubling as a map thief - until he was finally arrested slipping maps out of books in the Yale University library. Acclaimed reporter Michael Blanding has interviewed all the key players in this stranger-than-fiction story and shares the histories of maps that charted the New World and how they went from being practical instruments to quirky heirlooms to highly coveted objects. The Map Thief interweaves Smiley’s escapades with the stories of the explorers and mapmakers he knew better than anyone. 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.
NPR Book of the Year
New England Independent Booksellers Association Bestseller
‘In this cartographic caper, Michael Blanding slips into the antique map trade and takes a magnifying glass to the mind and motivations of a curious character named E. Forbes Smiley 111, a New England polymath with a special talent for taking razors to rare books. The setting and the character belong in a novel, and this engrossing book reads like fiction.’ Nina Burleigh, author of the New York Times bestseller The Fatal Gift of Beauty- The Trials of Amanda Knox
‘The Map Thief isn’t just a perceptive, meticulously researched portrait of an exceedingly unlikely felon. It’s also a tribute to the beautiful old maps that inspired his cartographic crimes - and shaped our modern world.’ Ken Jennings, author of Maphead- Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks
‘The Map Thief is a gripping, suspenseful tale, told by a veteran investigative reporter. And yes, it comes with maps.’ Star Tribune Minneapolis
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