Bibliograph

Thieves of Book Row, New York's most notorious rare book ring and the man who stopped it, Travis McDade

Type

Label

Thieves of Book Row, New York's most notorious rare book ring and the man who stopped it, Travis McDade

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages [187]-210) and index

resource.biographical

contains biographical information

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Thieves of Book Row

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

813938844

Responsibility statement

Travis McDade

Sub title

New York's most notorious rare book ring and the man who stopped it

Summary

In Thieves of Book Row, Travis McDade tells the gripping tale of the worst book-theft ring in American history, and the intrepid detective who brought it down. Author of The Book Thief and a curator of rare books, McDade transforms painstaking research into a rich portrait of Manhattan's Book Row in the 1920s and '30s, where organized crime met America's cultural treasures in dark and crowded shops along gritty Fourth Avenue. Dealers such as Harry Gold, a tough native of the Lower East Side, became experts in recognizing the value of books and recruiting a pool of thieves to steal them--many of them unemployed men who drifted up the Bowery or huddled around fires in Central Park's shantytowns. When Paul and Swede brought a new recruit into his shop, Gold trained him for the biggest score yet: a first edition of Edgar Allan Poe's Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems. Gold's recruit cased the rare-book room for weeks, searching for a weakness. When he found one, he struck, leading to a breathtaking game of wits between Gold and NYPL special investigator G. William Bergquist

Table Of Contents

The antics of the leading industrials -- The accumulated wisdom -- A purloined Poe -- Scholarship and investigation -- The Boston scene -- Someone qualified as a bookman -- The people of the state of New York and their dignity -- That's the end of the rare book

Target audience

adult

Classification