January 2014 | Rebecca Rego Barry

McDade on the 'Oath of a Freeman' Caper

In the not-too-be-missed reading pile this week, an article on book crime from Travis McDade, whose recent book, Thieves of Book Row: New York's Most Notorious Rare Book Ring and the Man Who Stopped It, we excerpted in our spring 2013 issue. McDade writes in The Millions that the Massimo De Caro news combined with the Bay Psalm Book sale back in November "put me in the mind of an earlier tale that combined forgery, theft, and the earliest American imprint in one stranger-than-fiction saga." He then details the Hofmann "Oath" forgery and how a thieving librarian from the Library of Congress assisted the plot.