The Map Thief (37 page)

Bill Reese
:
Barbara Mundy, “Object Lesson: Descendants of the Aztecs,”
Yale Alumni Magazine,
July–August 2013.

Franklin Institute auction
:
Bill Reese, interview with the author; Lita Solis-Cohen, “Franklin Institute’s rare books,”
The Philadelphia Inquirer,
September 12, 1986; Stephan Salisbury, “The sale of the stacks: the Franklin Institute is selling or giving away most of its library,”
The Philadelphia Inquirer,
August 16, 1986.

“Hello, this is Forbes Smiley”
 . . . nothing to do with him again:
Reese interview; Smiley interview.

C
HAPTER
5

W. Graham Arader III
:
Deborah Randolph, “A rare map dealer stirs some turmoil in a very small world,”
The Wall Street Journal
, January 3, 1980; “Vallijeanne Hartrampf weds W.G. Arader 3rd,”
The New York Times,
June 6, 1983; Mark Singer, “Profiles: wall power,”
The New Yorker,
November 30, 1987; Phil Patton, “‘Arader is up again!’ and his galleries are in full bloom,”
Smithsonian,
December 1, 1989; Sarah Vowell, “Futures market,”
This American Life,
National Public Radio, December 12, 1997, transcript, http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/86/transcript.

“then there was Graham Arader”
:
Singer, “Profiles.”

“best in the world at what I do”
:
“Dealer in rare maps covers a lot of ground,” Associated Press, March 9, 1979.

“Muhammad Ali of the map world”
:
Randolph, “A rare map dealer.”

“His most overriding concern”
:
Singer, “Profiles.”

“sees competitors as adversaries”
:
Ibid.

boomlet in the bird and animal prints
:
Peter Carlsen, “Affordable bits of botany can warm up rooms,”
Chicago Tribune,
February 5, 1989; Marilyn Hoffman, “A boom year ahead for antiques,”
Christian
Science Monitor,
January 22, 1998; Anne Gilbert, “It takes eagle eye to spot valuable bird, plant prints,”
Miami Herald,
June 4, 1989.

selling their clients on maps
:
Jane Margolies, “Maps that aren’t for getting somewhere,”
The New York
Times,
March 29, 1990; Frank D. Roylance, “Big money is said to spur mutilations of rare books,”
The Baltimore
Sun,
December 15, 1995; Doris Athineos, “Windows of the world,”
Forbes,
January 1, 1996.

Place des Antiquaires
:
Joseph Giovanni, “International antiques center opens its doors with a gala,”
The New York Times,
November 19, 1987; Rita Reif, “Antiques center still expanding as new dealers move into shops,”
The New York Times,
October 14, 1988.

one of the few American vendors
:
“E. Forbes Smiley III,” advertisement,
The Map Collector
(Winter 1987).

Smiley published a list
:
“Collector’s Barometer,”
The Map Collector
(Autumn 1987).

took out a full-page ad
:
“E. Forbes Smiley III,” advertisement,
House & Garden,
March 1988.

“Maps have a history”
:
Laurie Schechter, “Maps—graphic alternatives with a worldview,”
House & Garden,
June 1988.

“He’d talk about the beauty of the design”
:
Anonymous, interview with the author.

“He was a wonderful salesman”
:
Paul Cohen, interview with the author.

watched him steal away one client
:
Graham Arader, interview with the author. (MacLean declined requests for an interview.)

Harry Newman
:
Harry Newman, interview with the author.

“let me sell you a few things”
:
Ibid.

acquired a rare “proof state”
:
“E. Forbes Smiley III,” advertisement,
The Map Collector
(Autumn 1987); Krieger and Cobb,
Mapping Boston,
22, 24, 92; Burden,
Mapping of North America
, (473, pl. 473), 102–103; John Seller, “A Mapp of New England,” Norman B. Leventhal Collection, Boston Harbor Hotel; Alex Krieger, e-mail to the author, December 2, 2013.

wouldn’t have anything left
 . . .
new plan:
Krieger and Cobb,
Mapping Boston,
viii.

Ruysch map of world (1507)
:
Fite and Freeman,
Book of Old Maps,
29; Smiley,
Early Cartography
(1); Virga,
Cartographia,
173–176.

Larry Slaughter
:
Smiley interview; Judith Doolin Spikes, “Larchmont man leaves legacy of maps, atlases to NYC library,”
Daily Times
(New Rochelle), September 20, 1997.

Andrew Ellicott
:
Tooley,
Mapping of America,
216; Schwartz and Ehrenberg,
Mapping of America,
212; Schwartz,
This Land Is Your Land,
163; Ian McKay, “Bids and pieces,”
Mercator’s World
(September 1999); “Samuel Hill / Massachusetts Magazine:
Plan of the City of Washington [Second Printed Plan of Washington],
” Barry Ruderman Antique Maps Inc., http://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/23342?view=print; Ashley Baynton-Williams, “Plans of Washington, DC,” Map Forum, http://www.mapforum.com/12/12washb.htm; Donald Heald, “Ellicott, Andrew (1754–1820) and Pierre Charles L’Enfant (1754–1825), Plan of the City of Washington,” Donald A. Heald Rare Books, Prints, and Maps, http://www.donaldheald.com/maps/North%20America/maps_list_01.php?cat=North%20America&pg=13; Jed Graham, “Architect of a capital idea,” July 21, 2006, Arlington National Cemetery, http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/l-enfant.htm.

Smiley originally acquired versions
:
“LHS List,” New York Public Library Map Division, October 27, 2006, LHS Archives; Krieger interview.

appearances began to matter more
:
Newman and Cohen interviews; Scott Slater, Paul Statt, Fred Melamed, Scott Haas, Paul Cohen, and Harry Newman, interviews with the author.

flipping through a real estate circular
 . . . $89,000:
Slater interview.

Smiley flew up
 . . . elements in check:
Statt interview.

$50,000
 . . . “Forbes dollars”:
Slater interview.

warrants for two years of back taxes
:
New York state tax warrant, $4,578.93, issued May 18, 1988, satisfied April 7, 1989; New York state tax warrant, $3,844.88, issued May 18, 1988, satisfied April 7, 1989.

in one instance
 . . . Newman forgave him:
Newman interview.

other dealers, like Reese, stopped
:
Reese interview.

not the natural scholar
:
Singer, “Profiles.”

unravel a complicated web
:
E. Forbes Smiley III, “The Origins of the English Map Trade, 1670–1710,”
AB Bookman’s Weekly,
June 9, 1986, 2685–2694.

Ogilby map of Carolina (1673)
:
Smiley, “Origins”; Cumming,
British Maps of Colonial America,
3; Goss,
Mapping of North America,
90–91.

Holme map of Pennsylvania (1671)
:
Smiley, “Origins”; Burden,
Mapping of North America,
(557, Pl. 557) 214–215, 218; Smiley,
Early Cartography
(28); “The Quaker Province,” Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/overview_of_pennsylvania_history/4281/1681-1776__the_quaker_province/478727.

“These, then, were the men”
:
Smiley, “Origins.”

action in North America had shifted inland
 . . . England and France:
Schwartz and Ehrenberg,
Mapping of America,
133–162; Pritchard and Taliaferro,
Degrees of Latitude,
13–24, 114–125, 134–141, 152–175.

Moll “Beaver Map” (1715)
:
Pritchard and Taliaferro,
Degrees of Latitude,
114–117; Baynton-Williams and Baynton-Williams,
New Worlds,
132; Reinhartz,
Art of the Map,
xiv–xxi, 14–15.

De L’Isle map of Louisiane (1718)
:
Pritchard and Taliafarro,
Degrees of Latitude,
118–121; Goss,
Mapping of North America,
114–115; Fite and Freeman,
Book of Old Maps,
176–177.

Moll map of North America (1720)
:
Pritchard and Taliaferro,
Degrees of Latitude,
123–125; Goss,
Mapping of North America,
118–119; Smiley,
Early Cartography
(43, 44).

Popple map of North America (1733)
:
Goss,
Mapping of North America,
122–123; Smiley,
Early Cartography
(45).

John Mitchell map of North America (1755)
:
Goss,
Mapping of North America,
130–131; Smiley,
Early Cartography
(50); Fite and Freeman,
Book of Old Maps,
180–184.

Lewis Evans map of North America (1755)
:
Goss,
Mapping of North America,
128–129; Smiley, “Survey of American Cartography,”
AB Bookman’s Weekly,
March 18, 1985; Schwartz,
French and Indian War,
72.

“greatest effort of American cartography”
:
Smiley, “Survey.”

French and Indian War
:
Schwartz,
French and Indian War;
Schwartz and Ehrenberg,
Mapping of America,
162–166; Pritchard and Taliaferro,
Degrees of Latitude,
24–27.

Thomas Jefferys
:
Pritchard and Taliaferro,
Degrees of Latitude,
28, Baynton-Williams and Worms,
Dictionary of English Map Engravers
, 347–351, Cumming,
British Maps of Colonial America
, 45–47.

William Faden
:
Pritchard and Taliaferro,
Degrees of Latitude,
28–38; Baynton-Williams and Worms,
Dictionary of English Map Engravers
, 221–225; Cumming,
British Maps of Colonial America
, 68, 71–72.

Joseph F.W. Des Barres
:
Hornsby and Stege,
Surveyors of Empire,
1–9; Krieger and Cobb,
Mapping Boston,
106–107; Cumming,
British Maps of Colonial America
, 52–56.

“one of the most remarkable products”
:
Cumming,
British Maps of Colonial America
, 56; Schwartz and Ehrenberg,
Mapping of America,
202.

“handsomest collection of hydrographic maps”
:
Ibid., 202.

“one of the great rare Americana Catalogues”
:
William Finnegan, “A theft in the library,”
The New Yorker,
October 17, 2005.

“our small contribution to the history”
 . . . on the market for a century:
Smiley,
Early Cartography.

C
HAPTER
6

one April morning in 1989
:
Smiley interview. Author could uncover no independent sources to verify the date. In a letter written on March 12, 1990, Smiley set the date of the burglary as April 8, 1989 (Jose Porrja v. E. Forbes Smiley III, Supreme Court of the State of New York, Index No. 25040/90). In a sentencing memorandum submitted on September 19, 2006, Smiley’s lawyer set the date as April 13, 1989 (US v. Smiley, US District Court of the District of Connecticut, 3:06-cr-00189).

rare 1713 edition of
The English Pilot
:
Smiley interview.

Paul Cohen remembers Smiley calling
:
Cohen interview.

Alex Krieger
 . . . remembers being questioned:
Krieger interview.

Ashley Baynton-Williams
 . . . remembers seeing pictures:
Baynton-Williams interview.

referred to the incident in court papers several times
:
In response to a lawsuit by Cosmos Communications on November 8, 1989, Smiley claimed “uninsured loss of $220,000” (New York County District Court, Index No. 54546/1989); in response to a lawsuit by American Express Travel Services, on March 1, 1990, he claimed “uninsured loss of $220,000” (New York County District Court, Index No. 5678/90); in response to a lawsuit by Jose Porrja, on March 12, 1990, he claimed “an uninsured loss of $330,000; in response to the same lawsuit on November 13, 1990, he claimed “uninsured loss of $225,000” (Supreme Court of the State of New York, Index No. 25040/90). In an interview with the author in 2012, he put his losses at “a half a million dollars.”