The island of lost maps
Subtitle: a true story of cartographic crime
By: Miles Harvey.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2000
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 405
Subjects: Bland, Gilbert Lee Joseph; Map thefts -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Libraries -- United States -- Special collections -- Maps -- History -- 20th century
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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [355]-394) and index.