Reviews - The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

1.92k reviews for:

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

Kirk Wallace Johnson

4.02 AVERAGE

jessyf's review against another edition

4.0

informative fast-paced

mmetzdorf's review against another edition

5.0

Really fascinating story of the heist of the century. A young and talented flautist who is also a wunderkind of the extremely niche hobby of tying Victorian age salmon flies cons his way into the British Museum of Natural History, which houses one of the greatest collections of now-endangered and highly-sought-after bird skins and feathers. He breaks in and steals over 200 skins of rare and prized birds, selling them in the "feather underground" to collectors. Kirk Wallace Johnson presents a succinct but detailed history of the capture of these rare species, lays out the details of the heist, and embarks on his own obsessive journey into the black market of bird feathers to uncover the mystery himself, all presented beautifully in this book. Hard to put down and well worth checking out.