My Own Cartographia
Napoleon's March to Moscow.
Scott Cameron
In our conversation yesterday with Vincent Virga about his wonderful book, Cartographia, we talked a bit about one of the maps I have on my wall, the poster of the 1976 New Yorker cover by Steinberg, but I didn't tell some of the important parts about the big map of Europe I mentioned. It is, in fact, a Cold War era Soviet map of Europe - among other interesting points, it shows a unified Germany - that was used as a prop in a London production of The Accidental Death of an Anarchist - my wife worked at that theatre at the time and rescued it after the run ended. It still shows the pencil lines that an actor drew on it, from Rome to Moscow, for example, at various times in the play.
After the segment ended, I also mentioned to Mr. Virga another map, a statistical graphic by a French engineer, Charles Joseph Minard, that brilliantly describes Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Before I mentioned Minard's whole name, Mr. Virga said it was among his favorites, too, and one he bitterly regretted had to be left on the cutting room floor - another of his movie analogies. It tracks the invasion and the retreat so brutally that it utterly alters your view of the campaign for all time.
I also have a huge map of the Chesapeake that carries none of the emotional, political or cultural freight of the three above. So far as I know.
Tags: Cartographia | maps
10:37 AM ET | 12-13-2007 | permalink
