The Map Thief by Michael Blanding

The Map Thief by Michael Blanding

The story of an infamous crime, a revered map dealer with an unsavory secret, and the ruthless subculture that consumed him

Maps have long exerted a special fascination on viewers--both as beautiful works of art and as practical tools to navigate the world. 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.

Once considered a respectable antiquarian map dealer, E. Forbes Smiley spent years doubling as a map thief --until he was finally arrested slipping maps out of books in the Yale University library. The Map Thief delves into the untold history of this fascinating high-stakes criminal and the inside story of the industry that consumed him.

Acclaimed 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. Though pieces of the map theft story have been written before, Blanding is the first reporter to explore the story in full--and had the rare privilege of having access to Smiley himself after he'd gone silent in the wake of his crimes. Moreover, although Smiley swears he has admitted to all of the maps he stole, libraries claim he stole hundreds more--and offer intriguing clues to prove it. Now, through a series of exclusive interviews with Smiley and other key individuals, Blanding teases out an astonishing tale of destruction and redemption.

The Map Thief interweaves Smiley's escapades with the stories of the explorers and mapmakers he knew better than anyone. Tracking a series of thefts as brazen as the art heists in Provenance and a subculture as obsessive as the oenophiles in The Billionaire's Vinegar, Blanding has pieced together an unforgettable story of high-stakes crime.

Michael Blanding and Alexandra Hall met working five feet from each other as editors at Boston Magazine, where Alex covered food and fashion and Michael wrote about politics and crime. Since then, they've traveled the world together, dodging bicycles on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, breaking an axle on a safari in South Africa, and closing out nightclubs in Reykjavik, Paris, and Buenos Aires (not an easy feat!). But wherever their travels have taken them, they've always loved returning to New England for its mix of natural beauty and enlightened culture. Michael and Alex pride themselves on having driven, hiked, canoed, or sailed every corner of the six-state region, ferreting out underrated restaurants, backwoods museums, and hidden villages along the way.

Alex grew up on Boston's South Shore and studied at Wheaton College and Le Cordon Bleu Institute in Paris. After years as a senior editor for both Boston Magazine and dailycandy.com, she became creator and editor of Fashion Boston magazine at The Boston Globe. Her most recent venture is the launch of her own digital lifestyle magazine, COUP Boston. Michael grew up west of Boston, attended Williams College, and was a staff writer and editor at Boston Magazine for five years. Now a freelance magazine writer, he has also taught journalism at Emerson College, Northeastern University, and Tufts University. He recently published his first book of investigative non-fiction, The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink, and is currently at work on a true crime book called The Map Thief that will be published in 2013.

Together, Alex and Michael have written for publications including Conde Nast Traveler, Bon Appetit, Town & Country Travel, New England Travel, Yankee, Boston Magazine, Elle Decor, Continental, Business Traveler, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and AlterNet. They were married on the rustic shores of Maine's Moosehead Lake, where Michael wore a kilt and Alex donned red heels and white feathers. They now live in the Boston suburb of Brookline with their cat, Isabella, and their seven-year-old son Zachary and six-year-old daughter Cleo, who have fast become two of the best-traveled kids in the world.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9781592409402
ISBN 10	1592409407
Titel	The Map Thief
Autor	Michael Blanding
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Paperback
Verlag	Penguin Putnam Inc
Erscheinungsjahr	2015-06-02
Seitenanzahl	336
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar