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Chargement... The Book Thief: The True Crimes of Daniel Spiegelmanpar Travis McDade
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. The Book Thief: The True Crimes of Daniel Spiegelman is an account of the theft of numerous rare books and manuscrips from the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscripts Library in the early 1990s, as well as the multi-year quest to bring the culprit to justice. Travis McDade, currently the Assistant Professor of Library Administration at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's College of Law, has written what must be considered the definitive monograph on this case, barring any further developments (much of Spiegelman's haul has still not been recovered, and since the man is now out of jail again, more shoes could yet drop). What is remarkable about the Spiegelman case, McDade argues, is that the crime was taken very seriously by federal judge Lewis Kaplan, who went out of his way to depart from federal sentencing guidelines and add to Spiegelman's jail term. This was based largely on the efforts of Columbia librarians and other scholars, who through written and oral testimony made clear that Spiegelman's crimes should not be examined simply in light of any monetary value the stolen objects had, but also in terms of the cultural and scholarly implications. McDade notes that this book began as a research paper, and it still retains that sort of feel. He does not have the talent of Nicholas Basbanes or Miles Harvey for telling a good story; thankfully the Spiegelman drama holds enough water on its own to make this book interesting even through a writing style which is somewhat clunky. Additionally, another round of copy-editing might have improved the book, which contains multiple typographical and grammatical errors. Nonetheless, for those concerned with the protection of our cultural heritage from people like Spiegelman, McDade has written a book well worth reading. http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2007/01/book-revew-book-thief.html aucune critique | ajouter une critique
In the spring of 1994, Daniel Spiegelman shinnied up an abandoned book lift in Columbia University's Butler Library to get to the rare books floor where he then proceeded to dismantle a wall, steal books, reassemble the wall, and sneak back down the shaft. Over a three-month period he did this more than a dozen times. He eventually escaped with the loot - roughly $1.8 million in books, letters and manuscripts - to Europe to sell to collectors. When he was caught in the Netherlands, he tried to avoid extradition to the U.S. by telling the Dutch authorities that he was a financier of the Oklahoma City bombing knowing they wouldn't extradite someone who was facing the death penalty. Eventually the FBI, through some wrangling, got him back to New York, where he finally stood trial for his crimes. In vivid detail, including a retelling of the crimes, dialogue from the court transcripts, and explanations of the legal consequences and intricacies, McDade recounts all the sordid elements of this true crime caper. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Even though the thefts at Columbia were a compelling story, the author's awkward style often seemed childlike in trying to draw out some drama. Add to that the numerous typographical errors and poor editing, and the result is a magazine article that got rushed into a book-length manuscript. ( )