I always pore over maps in books, I can't pass a globe without checking certain borders, I really enjoy anything that explores boundaries and liminal environments. So I found this an interesting topic, or at least I felt a bit of outrage any time someone razored a map out of a book. Still, I'm not sure I'd want to close-read this book. Great for listening to with less than full attention while I did other tasks. ( )

This book scratched a very specific and nerdy itch for me. It had everything: intrigue, map history, map theft history, a GIS librarian, name-checking places I’ve worked, and above all else, the heroics of cataloging. ( )

Interesting from a historical perspective. The theft and capture was kind of a snoozefest. ( )

What is it about old maps? Perhaps because of what is not presented, as much as what is, they draw us in and beguile us. They offer us a snapshot of the world before photography--a piece of history intimately connected to a specific time and place, with an unstated undercurrent of politics, religion, entrepreneurship, and exploration. These unique pieces of art offer us an interpretation of the known world that, in their time, demanded to be improved upon by succeeding cartographers and discoverers.

There is a tight knit global community of wealthy map dealers and collectors that hunt for and prize the world's rarest maps, some going back 500 years. This book is the story of one northeastern American man, E. Forbes Smiley III, who became so enamored with his role in the world of rare map collecting that he began living beyond his means, and one day made the decision that in order to pay his mounting debts, he would begin stealing the very maps he spent a lifetime buying and selling. Starting with the Boston Public Library, he lifted rare maps from the most prestigious libraries and collections in the world. Then in the early 2000s he got caught. This is his story.

Through Smiley's rise and fall, Michael Blanding presents us with a fascinating look into the often dark world of rare map collecting. For mapheads, as Ken Jennings calls them, this book is a must read. The story unfolds like good fiction. If you care even a little about places and how they were discovered and interpreted, you will love reading this book. I did. ( )

Michael Blanding's The Map Thief is both an education on maps and mapmaking and the true story of E. Forbes Smiley, a map expert and dealer in rare maps who stole at least 100 rare maps from libraries and museums.

Blanding had Smiley's cooperation when he began researching this book, then lost it. His research on the rare books and antique map world did include many others who were victims or beneficiaries of their relationship with Smiley. As he builds the story of Smiley's life and career, Blanding dives deep into the history of some of the individual maps that Smiley dealt with, educating us along the way.

This is a short book that I found to be an interesting read but it wasn't completely satisfying. Perhaps because really understanding what happened depends so much on Smiley's willingness and ability to tell (he was an admitted inveterate liar who found it hard to stick to the truth), there are gaps and unknowns in the telling:

* Smiley compiled a list of 97 maps he stole at the time he went to trial in 2006, claiming he wanted to make amends for what he had done, but it soon became clear that the total number was more than that. No one knows for sure how many maps he actually stole.

* Nor does anyone know for sure when he began stealing maps. When originally apprehended he said 1998, then at trial he maintained he began in 2002. He dealt in rare maps for several years before 1998, so who really knows?

* In Smiley's telling, his rare map gallery was burgled in 1989 and, he says he lost a quarter of a million dollars. Not having insurance, this was the beginning of his financial troubles that were well known among his fellow rare map dealers. But the author reports there are no newspaper reports of the burglary, nor could the NYPD, FBI or Interpol produce any records of having investigated. So was the burglary story perhaps Smiley's way of hinting that his map thefts began much earlier than he was actually willing to admit?

Despite the gaps, I rate this book 3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐ - I wasn't completely satisfied with this book but I liked it well enough. If you have in interest in true crime / art theft stories, you might like it too. ( )