The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession

Prologue

1 Leslie Overstreet, Curator of Natural History Rare Books, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, e-mail correspondence with the author.

2 Bock was controversial because he was a physician/metaphysician who believed that botanical parts corresponded to human body parts and processes. Barbara Pitschel, Head Librarian, San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum, e-mail correspondence with the author.

3 John Windle. Interview with the author.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid. “There’s a famous story about a scholar in the early nineteenth century going into a fish shop in Germany. He saw them tearing pages out of a Bible to wrap the fish in—and it was a Gutenberg Bible.”

6 Ursula Bendixon and Waltraud Bendixon. Interview with the author.

7 Copenhagen: “Twists, Turns in Royal Library Book Theft Case.” www.denmark.dk (official website of Denmark). May 28, 2004.

Kentucky: “Transy Thieves Took Names from Film.” www.kentucky.com. October 11, 2005. This theft was unusually violent. On December 17, 2004, a young man phoned Transylvania University’s special collections librarian, BJ Gooch, to arrange a visit to the rare book room. Once there, the man asked to see some of the library’s finest books. He’d heard about the first edition of Darwin’s Origin of Species, but wanted to know what other treasures lay in the library, and even called a friend to join him. Gooch had already decided which books to pull from the locked metal flat files and the glass case that held some of the more wondrous texts. Shortly, the friend arrived, wearing hat, scarf, and sunglasses, which made it almost impossible to see his face. Gooch had a bad feeling about the pair, but didn’t expect what followed. As she reached into one of the drawers, they shot her with a stun gun, then tied her up and ran off with several rare items, including the Darwin, two rare manuscripts, and sketches by Audubon. “I lay there on the floor, weak as a newborn baby, while they ran off,” she said. A few days later, the young men took the loot, worth about $750,000, to Christie’s auction house. Their flimsy, improbable story raised suspicions, and the two were caught, along with two other friends who’d planned the heist. All four were sentenced to time in prison. University of Kentucky rare book librarian BJ Gooch. Interview with the author.

Cambridge: “Biblioklepts,” Harvard Magazine, May 1997.

8 John Windle. Interview with the author.