The Map Thief (34 page)

I’VE ALWAYS HAD
a tremendous respect and admiration for librarians—who helped introduce me to the joys of reading at an early age and later helped me track down countless sources and facts as a reporter. But working on this project has convinced me they are some of the nicest and most generous people on the planet. I deeply appreciate the unstinting knowledge and honesty they shared with me in the interest of the historical record. In particular, I have to thank Ron Grim, E.C. Schroeder, Margit Kaye, Abe Parrish, Alice Hudson, Nancy Kandoian, David Cobb, Tony Campbell, and Peter Barber.

I also owe a debt to the journalists who plowed this field before me, in particular Kim Martineau and Bill Finnegan, whose stories I relied upon to track down sources and information. I am also thankful for the assistance of the law enforcement officials who spent their time untangling Smiley’s web of deceit, especially Steve Kelleher and Marty Buonfiglio. I also have to acknowledge the map collectors and dealers who helped me understand their world, including Harry Newman, Bill Reese, Graham Arader, Barry Ruderman, Paul Cohen, and Douglas Marshall; as well as crime experts Anthony Amore, Travis McDade, and Bob Goldman, who explained the ins and outs of art, book, and map theft to me.

Thanks as well to Smiley’s friends, who helped me write a more human story than I would otherwise have been able to do, including Paul Statt, Hilary Chaplain, Bob von Elgg, Fred Melamed, Scott Haas, David Mallett, Jayne Lello, and especially Scott Slater, who spent hours with
me sharing stories, letters, paintings, and videos to make sure that I got the portrait of his best friend right.

I can’t say enough about the support provided to me by the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University, as well as the support it provides to great journalism in general. Specifically I have to thank Florence Graves, Claire Pavlik Purgus, Melissa Ludtke, Sophie Elsner, Neena Pathak, Molly Taft, and Elizabeth Eckley; as well as their team of indefatigable research assistants, including Gilda Di Carli, Megan Kerrigan, Adelina Simpson, Aliya Bean, Simon Diamond Cramer, and especially Tate Herbert, who helped corral many of the wonderful maps that illustrate this volume. Thanks as well to Sophie Luke-Hall and Maura Fields for their own crucial research assistance and to Jelmer Noordeman and Koen Harmsma, who provided such excellent original maps to accompany the narrative. I am thankful to those who helped me first conceive of this story, including Janice O’Leary, who first suggested I try to interview Smiley, and Alexandra Hall, who encouraged me from the outset to pursue this book.

I am also grateful for the support of Grub Street Writer’s Launch Lab, including Katrin Schulman, Lynne Griffin, and all my wonderful fellow authors, including Peggy Shriner, Tasneem Zehra, and Elizabeth Earley, who all read a draft of the manuscript and provided much helpful advice. Thanks to my mother, Ann Blanding, who lent her own eagle eye to catching typos in the penultimate draft, and to my father, Bob Blanding, who inspired my love of maps to begin with. A special shout-out to Rebecca Uchill, who also read the manuscript and offered generous amounts of advice and support in a plethora of multimedia styles.

Finally, this book would not have been possible without the unflagging support of my agent, the incomparable Elisabeth Weed, who immediately saw the potential in this strange tale and helped me shape it into a compelling narrative. And last but not least, I have to thank the wonderful team at Gotham who helped to make this a reality, including my talented editor, Megan Newman, who rightly encouraged me to let the story tell itself; her always-positive assistant, Gigi Campo; and all of the people behind the scenes who helped make this book a reality. It is because of them that you now hold this book in your hands, and for that I am endlessly grateful.

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