Call Me Snake

Years ago, in the heyday of this blog, I wrote a series of posts about E. Forbes Smiley III, who was then accused of stealing rare (and extremely valuable) maps from several libraries. I started the series because I liked the name of the accused, only later discovering that we went to the same college at around the same time and knew some people in common. A New Yorker writer, who was writing a feature article about Smiley, got in touch with me in an attempt to contact his friends, some of whom had commented on my blog. I also heard from a journalist from the Hartford newspaper that broke the story in the first place. In addition, several of Smiley’s pals attacked me, having some harsh things to say about my character and also claiming that he was a far better person than I’d ever be.

History suggests a slightly different interpretation. Smiley was convicted of stealing 97 rare maps and admitted to an author that he stole 11 more. All told these maps were worth more than $3 million dollars. The libraries that he stole from claim that 150 more maps are missing, so that the ultimate toll of his thievery is probably much greater.

I have my faults but am not much of a thief. I once stole a postcard only because I couldn’t find a person in the outdoor market to pay. And I pinched a 45 rpm record when I was in junior high school, succumbing to pressure from friends who liked to shoplift. I didn’t like the record and felt bad about how it had come into my possession. In fact, I never hung out with those so-called friends again. And unlike my college contemporary, I concluded, early on, that a life of crime was not for me.