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Boston Lit District’s Literary Lunch Break: Michael Blanding

June 12, 2015 | 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

E. Forbes Smiley, a respectable antiquarian map dealer, spent years doubling as a map thief — until he was finally arrested one day slipping maps out of books in the Yale University Library. To write a full-length work about Smiley, investigative journalist Michael Blanding gained access to the man himself — no mean feat. No wonder The Minneapolis Star-Tribune calls Blanding’s much heralded work, The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps, nothing less than “a suspenseful tale of the theft of cultural heritage by a man who presented himself as one of the chief interpreters and safeguards of that heritage.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer says “Blanding’s numerous strengths” as a researcher and compelling storyteller “are on display here.” Within the story is the story of how maps went from being practical instruments to quirky heirlooms to highly coveted objects. There is respect for cartographers as well. The Wall Street Journal comments that “Blanding’s most moving passages commemorate those who helped build and, bit by bit, envisage the world as we know it.” The Map Thief was named a New England Indie Bestseller by the New England Independent Booksellers Association. It comes out in paperback the very week Blanding will be speaking about it at Literary Lunch Break.

Details

Date:
June 12, 2015
Time:
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Event Categories:
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Venue

South Station
700 Atlantic Avenue
Boston, 02110 United States

Did You Know?

Certain books were “banned in Boston” at least as far back as 1651, when one William Pynchon wrote a book criticizing Puritanism.