Carnegie Library theft
 

Well, my world is being rocked at the moment. Turns out that the owner of Caliban Books, far and away the best used bookstore in Pittsburgh, was one of two people involved in stealing $8M dollars' worth of rare books (or, worse, parts of rare books) from the Carnegie Library.

Just awful on every level. Story: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/cri...s/201807190205

Aaron,
Yikes, high crimes and misdemeanors. The story reminded me of Stephen Blumberg, the only other Rare-book thief I know about and one for the books; Greg Priore’s equally iniquitous analogue went by the sobriquet, The Invisible Man. The temerity of both is staggering. Meanwhile, one cannot help but feel sorry for a library when one, of all places, gets taken in by a venerable weasel and looted. It is like some wanton force up and pilfered tomes from quite monks caught unawares, what Bede recoiled at all over again. Who are these snakes slithering to a library near you?

[Edited-in: In my haste, I had written ‘nom de guerre,’ but that is more accurate for the likes of The Red Baron from history or, say, ‘Goose’ and ‘whatever the other one is’ from Top Gun.


P.S. Did you frequent Caliban Crooks, nominally Books? Must be weird to be caught unawares, I can only imagine. Who could have fathomed a front for a biblio-mafia from a quaint-looking bookshop? Needless to say, you have no cause to feel the least embarrassed, much less guilty, concerning nothing that came within your power. Only one person earned all of the blame, the Bad Man has—Oh, monstrous! fie, for shame!

That is depressing news. Love of books does not seem the prime motivating factor.

Cheers,
John