The future of map collecting

 Dr. Seymour Schwartz - the greatest surgeon of all time - wrote the handbook of surgery - so all of his books read extremely well

Right now his "Mapping of America" is the bible that you can surpass.  He was my mentor and hero for 45 years

William Patterson Cumming  - Professor of English at Davidson College - again writes well.  British Maps of Colonial America, The Southeast in Early Maps, The Exploration of North America and The Discovery of North America are amazing works that I use daily

Walter Ristow - Head of the Map Division of the Library of Congress - also wrote a book called the Mapping of America.  Also the editor of  "A La Carte" with three chapters on the 3 most important maps in America History.

David Woodward - founder of the History of Cartography Project - a great icea with 9 thick volumes   Matthew Edney has been running it since Woodward's Death 20 years ago.

Five Centuries of Map Printing is Woodward's best work

Beyond this I have a 10,000 volume library on the History of Cartography stored in 4 locations - two in NYC and two in Upper Merion Township in Pennsylvania - 

90% of these books are written poorly so your gift of riveting prose will come in handy

No highly opinionated book  has been written ranking map's importance relating to the key 

1, Discoverers  Columbus, Verrazano, De Soto,  Cortez, Champlain, the US Army Corps of Engineers and about 30 others

2. Minds - Ptolemy, Gastaldi, Mercator and about 10 more

3. Political figures - Charles I, Francis 1, Henry 8, Jefferson, George III, James Polk and about 50 others

4, Economic drivers - Spices, Gold and Silver, the Dutch in the 17tn century

5. Religious freedom - William Penn, the Popes, Spanish Dogma, French Wars of Religion and Florida 1563 Florida Expedition

6. The evolution of Atlases - Italian, German, Dutch, French, English, Americans in that order

So you would gain immortality by ranking the 25 most impt in HIGHLY OPINIONATED, even sanctimonious prose in these 6 categories.  You could make them 12 categories if you divided topographical and sea charts.

Of course what would make it huge would be getting a major museum or library to mount an exhibition like Lloyd Arnold Brown's "The World Encompassed" in 1952 at the Baltimore Museum of Art

The MET wants to do it along with another 25 projects that they want to do! .  New York Historical Society and New York Public Library would be good too.   And yes, there is Miami and Palm Beach where everyone is moving.  And the most cash right now is in Texas so that might work.  And then the show could travel.  

And you could find a Mexican to give you $50,000,000 to do a chapter on James Polk taking 55% of Mexico in 1848 at the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.  ALL of them are still vengeful over that.  When you talk to them, after 3 hours, it is why they feel no guilt over poisoning our young with chromosome manipulated addictive marijuana.  The last person to do this was Jorge Islas Lopez who was the Consul here.  He will be the next President of Mexico in 5 years.  His words ring in my ears. 

This has not been done because there are no literate authors that know even 20% of what I do. 

This would drive a 10 times investment return easily and every important American map would be known by its call numbers of your grading system - something like your name, 1. 35 for the Gastaldi map of the East Coast.