![]() ![]() THE MAP THIEF delves into the untold history of this fascinating high-stakes criminal, interweaving it with the stories of the explorers and mapmakers he knew better than anyone, and the inside story of the industry that consumed him. Blanding expertly reports a tale of personal destruction and redemption played out against the dog-eat-dog world of a secretive subculture. THE MAP THIEF: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps by Michael Blanding (Gotham Books, June 2014, Hardcover, eBook) includes the results of an exclusive interview with Smiley before he went quiet, as well as the other individuals involved from the dealers he worked with to the librarians affected by Smiley’s theft. ![]() He would later confess to the theft of 97 maps valued at over $3 million total, and serve 3 years in prison for his crimes. Forbes Smiley III, esteemed and respectable antiquarian map dealer, spent years doubling as a map thief until he was finally arrested while delicately tearing maps out of books in the Yale University Library in 2005. For those that collect them, however, the map trade can be a cutthroat business, inhabited by quirky and in some cases 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 practical tools to navigate the world. The Map Thief The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps ![]()
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