"Susanna Fisher's researched history tells the story of the families and companies that dominated this trade from the 1750's until the present day. The makers of the blueback charts were amongst the great cartographers of their day and names like Sayer, Laurie and Findlay are well known to anyone who has an interest in old sea charts. The high and low fortunes of their businesses and the London world in which they lived and work is colourfully portrayed."--Jacket.

"An important and scholarly work; bringing together much information available heretofore only in scattered sources. Easily readable." — Gerald I. Alexander, F.R.G.S. Cartographer, Map Division, New York Public Library. The first authoritative history of maps and the men who made them. The historical coverage of this volume is immense: from the first two centuries A.D. — Strabo and Ptolemy — through the end of the 19th century, with some discussion of 20th-century developments. 86 illustrations. Extensive notes and bibliography. "Mr. Brown felicitously marries scholarship to narrative and dramatic skill." — Henry Steele Commager.