BOOKS: THE ISLAND OF LOST MAPS. A TRUE STORY OF CARTOGRAPHIC IN SOUTH AFRICA

About the product Squarish 8vo; original maroon boards, lettered in gilt on spine; laminated pictorial dustwrapper; decorative endpapers; pp. 405, incl. index. Near-fine condition."In December 1995 Gilbert Bland was chased from the Peabody Library of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, clutching four 232-year-old maps. He turned out to be one of the greatest map thieves in history. Miles Harvey has spent four years tracing Bland's journey from middle-class anomymity to dark criminality, attempting to understand what drove Bland to steal some of the rarest cartographic treasures in the world.. In The Island of Lost Maps Harvey with great panache and wit conveys an intriguing subculture of map junkies whose cartomania is an obsession both surreal and sublime, who see maps as'power-imbued fetishes'. It is a sparkling story of artisans, villainy and riveting adventures into the unknown." Books: The Island of Lost Maps. A True Story of Cartographic Crime