The island of lost maps

Description:

"The Island of Lost Maps is the story of a curious crime spree: the theft of scores of valuable centuries-old maps from some of the most prominent research libraries in the United States and Canada. The perpetrator was the Al Capone of cartography, a man with the unlikely name of Gilbert Bland, Jr., an enigmatic antiques dealer from south Florida whose cross-country slash-and-dash operation went virtually undetected until he was caught in December 1995.". "This is also the story of author Miles Harvey's quest to understand America's greatest map thief, a chameleon who changed careers and families without ever looking back. Gilbert Bland was a cipher, a blank slate - for Harvey, journalistic terra incognita. Filling in Bland's life was like filling in a map, and grew from an investigation into an intellectual adventure."--BOOK JACKET.

subjects: Early maps,  Special collections,  Libraries,  Maps,  Map thefts,  Collectors and collecting,  History,  Large type books,  Cartography,  Map industry and trade,  Theft,  Diefstal,  Kaarten (geografie),  Diebstahl,  Kartografie,  Karte,  Early maps, collectors and collecting,  Libraries, special collections,  Cartography, history

People: Gilbert Lee Joseph Bland

Places: United States

Times: 20th century