NP Longitude-related

[Doug Millison]

As stories go, it is usually the map that leads to buried treasure. But
what happens when the map itself is the treasure?  Miami Herald book editor
Margaria Fichtner reviews The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of
Cartographic Crime by Miles Harvery (Random $24.95)--and what a story it
is. Gilbert Joseph Bland, the "Al Capone of cartography" is believed to
have stolen as many as 250 rare and valuable maps from at least 19 U.S. and
Canadian libraries, some more than four centuries old.

Fichtner wrote: "Although Harvey indulges in far too much pop-psychology
guesswork with regard to the motivations behind Bland's crimes and scampers
off on too many wuzzy introspective detours into how the story is affecting
his own psyche, he has managed to produce a brisk and humorous piece of
business that keeps the reader engaged even when it wanders into arcane
cul-de-sacs of mapmaking, map collecting, map scholarship and lore." A good
recommendation for those readers who enjoyed Dava Sobel's Longitude.

from:
PW Daily for Booksellers from Publishers Weekly
Thursday, September 7, 2000
http://www.publishersweekly.com
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