Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Dealing in stolen books is a dark business…
Camino Island
What you need to know before your trail
The five manuscripts of F Scott Fitzgerald’s only novels are amongst the most valuable in the world. They are valued at some $25 million although many would say they’re priceless and are stored in the vaults beneath Princeton University. But the most daring heist has taken place and the manuscripts have been stolen. The literary treasure might never be found since the ruthless gang of thieves who took them have seemingly vanished without trace.
Dealing in stolen books is a dark business, and few are initiated to its arts – which puts Bruce Kable right on the FBI’s Rare Asset Recovery Unit’s watch list.
Meanwhile Mercer Mann is a struggling writer burdened by debts, who used to spend summers on Florida’s idyllic Camino Island when younger. Now she is being made an offer she can’t refuse: to return to the peace of the island, to write her novel – and get close to a certain infamous bookseller, and his interesting collection of manuscripts . . .
Travel Guide
Princeton University
“F Scott Fitzgerald enrolled in Princeton in the fall of 1913. At the age of sixteen, he was dreaming of writing the great American novel, and had indeed begun working on an early version of This Side of Paradise.He dropped out four years later to join the Army and go to war, but it had ended before he was deployed. His classic, The Great Gatsby, was published in 1925 but did not become popular until after his death.”
“In 1950, Scottie, his daughter and only child, gave his original manuscripts, notes and letters – his papers – to the Firestone Library at Princeton. His five novels were handwritten on inexpensive paper that did not age well. The Library quickly realise that it would be unwise to allow researchers to physically handle them. High-quality copies were made, and the originals were locked away in a secured in a secured basement vault where the air,light, and temperatures were carefully controlled. OVer the years, they had been removed only a handful of times”
Camino Island
Described as a “Ten mile long barrier strip just north of Jacksonville”
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Camino Island
Author/Guide: John Grisham Destination: Princeton, Florida, Jacksonville Departure Time: 2000s
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