The Island Of Lost Maps: A True Story Of Cartographic Crime (2001) - Plot & Excerpts
Today’s post is on The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime by Miles Harvey. It is 405 pages long including notes and it published by Random House. The cover has the title and author’s name in a frame like a map legend. The intended reader is someone who is interested in cartography, true crime, and history. There is no language, no sex, and no violence in this book. The story is told from the first person perspective of the author. There Be Spoilers Ahead.From the dust jacket- 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 spellbinding 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.Harvey listens to the fury of the librarian from whom Bland stole. He introduces us to America’s foremost map mogul, a millionaire maverick who predicted the boom in map collecting. He retraces Bland’s life, from his run-ins with the law to his troubled service in Vietnam. And finally, with the aid of an FBI agent, Harvey discovers the Island of Lost Maps. The deeper Miles Harvey investigates, the more we are drawn into this fascinating subculture of collectors, experts, and enthusiasts, all of them gripped by an obsession both surreal and sublime. Capturing that passion in perfect pitch, The Island of Lost Maps is an intriguing story of exploration, craftsmanship, villains, and the lure of the unknown.Review- I found this book fascinating. I love history, true crime, and maps myself. I live near the ocean so I understand that siren call of the sea. I am a librarian so I understand the outrage about what Bland did. And I like well written books, this was one. Harvey takes the reader on a strange journey through time from the beginning of map making to the most modern methods to mapping the sea floor. The thief Gilbert Bland is not really important to the story. He is why it was started, he did steal from students, researches, and the tax payers, but he is not really important. I felt that was just like his life. Bland was there but not really important. That has caused pain to his family but Bland does not really care about that either. Harvey is much more interesting than Bland. Bland hid from everyone, Harvey goes to meet new people to learn more about maps from. Bland did not care about the maps or map making. Harvey finds insiders who are willing to give him some of their time so that he can understand. Bland is very boring. Harvey is moving, learning, and all in all much more interesting. Read this book for Harvey, the maps, and history because just like in his life Gilbert Bland is just not there.I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.
I can’t believe I finally finished reading this book! I never thought I’d make it! Even Jake said he felt relieved when I was finally done. So I suppose it’s not hard to guess that I thought this book was pretty boring and way longer than it needed to be. I would repeatedly find myself at the bottom of a paragraph and realize I had no clue what I had just read. Or I would suddenly come to with a jolt and a major crick in my neck. Oy!The author took what was a mildly interesting case (a man who stole hundreds of valuable old maps from rare book rooms at libraries around the nation) and researched it to death. He spent 4 years interviewing anyone even remotely connected to the case or rare maps collecting, he gathered all kinds of court documents, police records, military records, etc. and he dumped all of that information into this book. The info wasn’t well organized to begin with, but then he intersperses it with all kinds of tidbits on the history of maps, the history of map collecting, the history of explorers and it was mostly a jumbled mess.It starts to get weird when he author admits that he became obsessed with this case and the criminal involved, Gilbert Bland. He continually delved into Bland’s psyche, trying to get to the bottom of his motivations in committing this type of crime. He constantly wrestled with his obsession, trying to figure out throughout the book why he was so obsessed with this case and doing such extensive research into it. While I appreciated his candor and typically enjoy trying to get to the psychological heart of things, it got awkward to sit there and read about his inner struggle. At one point the author even talks about how he was beginning to take on traits of the map thief. He even compares his search for Gilbert Bland to that of Stanely’s immortal search for Dr. Livingstone and then goes on to remind us of what kind of a person Stanley turned into (he ended up working as a Belgian mercenary and was involved in the oppression and torture of thousands of people in the Congo).Even after all that, I won’t say that this book was totally worthless. As I mentioned, the case itself was mildly interesting and as with any non-fiction work there was information to be gleaned that I can take away with me. Whether I like or dislike a book is not the most important thing to me. I care more whether a book provides food for thought and for interesting discussion. If it provides me an outlet for expressing my strong opinions in a fairly safe and neutral forum. I think this book has done those things for me and I look forward to the discussion at book club. Thanks for hanging in there with me if you’ve made it this far. If you feel so inclined, leave a comment so I can give you due gratitude!
What do You think about The Island Of Lost Maps: A True Story Of Cartographic Crime (2001)?
This was a fairly interesting little book, although it did struggle to keep my interest at a few moments. It tells the history, through the present, of map-making and map-dealing as much as it gives the history of map-stealing. The specific case of Gilbert Bland and his cartographic crime spree is not as central as I had assumed it would be, which allowed for some interesting and pertinent tangents but also for an occasional sense of directionlessness. There were several divagations from the map theme altogether when the author started reflecting on his own role as a researcher and writer, his own years-long quest for the truth behind this story, and while these self-reflections did serve to remind me that I was only reading one man's account of these events, they were sometimes distracting from the subject at hand. Still, on the whole, I found this book to be interesting, informative, and enjoyable.
—stephanieisabookworm
Really interesting idea, although a bit heavy on the author's thoughts about map stealing, etc., which is OK, I guess, but not my thing (I had a similar reaction to The Other Side of the River by Alex Kotlowitz, whose work I like very much: I don't necessarily want to hear about a dream you had because you were so immersed in a story, or how many flights were taken to get here and there; not in the book anyway.). I think this was a function of it making a great magazine longread, but just not quite having enough for a full blown book (or maybe a much shorter book).Anyway, this is still a good read and full of interesting material about an unusual crime, criminal and compulsion.
—Mike
This book is great! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I stayed up late reading it one night, then lounged in bed the next morning (my day off) to read some more.The author describes this book as "part true-crime, part history of cartography, party journey of self-discovery." It's also the story of obsession, the obsession of people who spent huge chunks of money to collect old and rare maps.(How did I end up reading this book and The Orchid Thief--a book about people obsessed with orchids--in the same summer? Maybe I can read a few more books dealing with true tales of obsession, then call summer 2015 My Summer of Obsession.)In any case, this book is well-written and accessible. It held my attention. It made me want to know more.I want to read more books by Miles Harvey.
—HeavyReader
