"The Island of Lost Maps" Book Review

The Island Of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"In 1995, a watchful patron alerted a librarian at Johns Hopkins University that another patron, a middle-aged and well-dressed man, was behaving suspiciously. The librarian called the police, who discovered that the man, a Floridian named Gilbert Bland, had cut four maps from a set of rare books. On investigation, the police were able to attribute dozens of similar thefts to Bland, thefts that had taken place at a score of the country's best-regarded - and, presumably, best-protected--scholarly institutions.

"Like countless other readers, Miles Harvey, a writer for 'Outside' magazine, encountered the news of Bland's arrest as a brief item in the back pages of the morning newspaper. The story stayed with Harvey, who wondered why otherwise law-abiding people behave so badly around antiquities.

"In 'The Island of Lost Maps', a wonderfully rich excursion into the demimonde of what might be called cartographomania, Harvey follows Bland's tracks from library to library, reconstructing the crimes of the man he deems the Al Capone of map theft, following the contours of Bland's complex, sinister character. Along the way, Harvey examines the history of cartography generally, and the ravenous market for old maps - once the quiet province of a few knowing collectors, now invaded by speculators. These maps are just another corner of the overpriced status-symbol commodity market--and one that richly rewarded Bland's nefarious work.

"Harvey's winding narrative, full of learned detours, adds up to a superbly rendered tale of true crime (and, many readers might object, of insufficient punishment), one that will appeal to book lovers and mystery buffs in equal measure."

- Gregory McNamee

*Warning: Use of profanity and, probably, spoilers.*

I originally picked this book up when it had just been published and I was a little girl. I liked it because of the book's size and shape and the cover was pretty without being overdone. I showed it to my mother who made me put it away, laughing "You would never read that." I did eventually get this book, this year actually, at a mini-golf while I was vacationing in Rehoboth Beach. ("Fye upon you, mother!") So, it is finally mine and after having read it I'm not quite sure if I would've enjoyed it at that age. I was always a weird kid though, so maybe.

I enjoyed this book. I found the information regarding cartography, maps and their many contributions to history very interesting. I love reading about those little bits of history. This would've been perfect as a History channel documentary or something. I never realized it before but those maps sounded beautiful and it was such a shame that you could only see bits and pieces of them in the book.

There were only a few problems that I had with this story. I didn't like the bad guy at all and he was the main protagonist. He was a dead-beat, a thief and a lousy business owner. The only reason to have included him in this at all would be to use him as an example of people that librarians and archivists need to watch out for.

I LOVE books and I couldn't stand it that he would cut them up, right in the library, like the useless douche that he is. I mean I can understand doing it for the artwork and stuff, if it's your book or if you have someone else more specialized in books do it so as not to needlessly harm the rest of the book, but to do that to nearly priceless works that you didn't pay for, I hope you loose your dick somehow. That's like cutting up a Monet for one flower.

Anyway, there were about a hundred other more interesting people that the author could've made the book about and still talked about maps and cartography on top of it, but he didn't. I mean, those explorers were far superior in their talents and goals and they were even better at being outright thieves: they got people needlessly killed just so they could look at mountains, steal gold and even steal other maps, off of ships! Gilbert Bland is a pathetic footnote in the history of maps and somehow he's the main protagonist. If he needed someone contemporary, he could've used the map dealer, W. Graham Arader III, he was interesting, colorful and very successful.

The other problem I had was with the author. He inserted himself into it, which is okay, but it is a bit jarring. This same thing happened in "The Pirate Queen: In Search of Grace O'Malley and Other Legendary Women of the Sea" by Barbara Sjoholm. They really ought to change the title of that book because it is blatant false advertising. I thought I was going to be reading about O'Malley but it was mainly little stories about Norse sea goddesses, which was interesting and I liked that. But then the author would break in and start talking about what is was it is like braving the Irish Sea today and it was like "no, the only thing that's interesting about you is your name and that was given to you".

I'd rather read about the maps and cartographers than about the author quite frankly. And I realize as a journalist he probably doesn't get to write himself into the story very often, because the editor would cut it out (because it was needless and doesn't help the story progress), so I can understand that he was "finding himself" (usually lost). But because he put himself in the story the book ran on too long. I would say that he could've taken those last two chapters out and it would've been fine, at the very least that last very pointless chapter needed to go.

It was enjoyable, but it could've been better.

Ironically, just came across this list of the "7 Must Read Books on Maps".

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