The Map Thief: Story of Map Dealer turned Thief East Greenwich, RI: The Friends of the East Greenwich Free Library will host a special event on Thursday, November 13th, at 6:30pm featuring Michael Blanding, author of the recently released book The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps. Released in May 2014, the book details the career of E. Forbes Smiley, an antiquarian map dealer who spent years doubling as a map thief until he was arrested while delicately tearing maps out of books in the Yale University Library in 2005. Smiley would later confess to the theft of 97 maps valued at more than $3million, and served 42 months in prison for these crimes. The Map Thief published by Gotham Books, includes the results of an exclusive interview with Smiley before he went quiet, as well as other individuals involved; from the dealers he worked with to the librarians affected by Smiley?s theft. Previous to writing The Map Thief, Michael penned the book The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World?s Favorite Soft Drink (Avery 2010), and has spent more than 15 years as a journalist writing long-term narrative and investigative journalism. He has written for Boston magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, Consumers Digest and the Boston Globe Magazine. You can read reviews and see copies of the maps on Michael?s website: http://www.michaelblanding.com/media. The Friends of East Greenwich Free Library is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to supporting and enhancing library services. For more information about the Friends? events contact friendseglibrary@gmail.com or visit us on Facebook.
