Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession
by Matthew Hart
- New
- Hardcover
- Condition
- New/New
- ISBN 10
- 0802713688
- ISBN 13
- 9780802713681
- Seller
-
Des Moines, Iowa, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Fast shipping in a secure book box mailer with tracking. From the publisher, "On a hot morning in May 1999, three Brazilian garimpeiros (small-scale miners) found a large pink diamond in the muddy waters of the Abaete River, a discovery that captivated the diamond trade. Beginning with this dramatic and revealing story, Matthew Hart takes readers on a journey far beyond the window at Tiffany's, into an obsessive, largely hidden, and utterly fascinating world.
From the fog-bound smugglers' paradise of Africa's Diamond Coast to the Manhattan offices of one of the world's most flamboyant diamantaires; from the London salesrooms of De Beers, which manages the longest-running cartel in modern business history, to a truck-parts shop fronting a diamond brokerage in Brazil, Matthew Hart has followed the diamond trail, encountering characters as memorable as the stones they seek. He recreates the modern history of diamonds, starting in 1869 when a native boy in South Africa found a large crystal on a farm, sparking a rush that brought Cecil Rhodes and Ernest Oppenheimer their glory. He chronicles the sensational diamond strike in the 1990s in Canada's Northwest Territories that has shaken the fortress of the old cartel, and profiles the audacious young female geologist Eira Thomas who, against all odds, discovered near the Arctic Circle one of the richest diamond fields in the world. He watches one of the finest diamond cutters operating on a priceless stone and portrays the lives of the countless, nameless cutters in India who have transformed the industry by making valuable the tiny stones that were once considered worthless.
Diamonds also have their dark side. 'Malfeasance rustles in the background of the diamond world like a snake in dry grass,' writes Hart as he documents the relentless and ingenious thievery that pervades the business and the even more damaging revelations of "war diamonds" financing brutal conflicts in Africa. The diamond world is at a crossroads, he notes, and 'who will rule diamonds now and what form the once-secretive business will take are the issues of the day.'
In the end, it is the stone itself that fascinates and bewitches the reader. Diamonds are accidents of nature, carbon crystals compressed deep underground millions of years ago; parts of them may even predate the Earth itself. And they are elusive, carried to the surface only in slender volcanoes known as 'pipes,' most of which are actually barren. Matthew Hart has captured the essence of an exotic substance and its world as surely as a diamond captures light: bending it, reflecting it, and returning it in a blaze of color.
Synopsis
Beginning with the memorable story of an extraordinary pink diamonddiscovered in Brazil in 1998, Matthew Hart illuminates the rich andobsessive world of diamonds in a fascinating, original narrative. Hart'sstory sparkles with the science and geology of diamonds: Some may be asancient as the universe, formed before the Earth was created, while thoseformed on Earth come via volcanic action and are tremendously hard to find.It introduces an intriguing cast, from the creators of the DeBeers empire atthe turn of the century to some of those who quest after diamonds today. Ittakes readers inside diamond mines in South Africa, to the offices ofdiamond brokers in New York and Amsterdam, to anonymous diamond cutters inIndia, and to a meeting with Louis Glick, the Michelangelo of his field.And, telling the dramatic story of a recent and giant diamond strike inCanada's Northwest Territories, which in some ways reset the balance ofpower in the industry, Matthew Hart makes clear what drives the legendaryobsession behind diamonds, and why should matter to readers everywhere.
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Details
- Bookseller
- The Anthropologists Closet (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 2594
- Title
- Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession
- Author
- Matthew Hart
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- New
- Jacket Condition
- New
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 0802713688
- ISBN 13
- 9780802713681
- Publisher
- Walker Books
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2001
- LCCN
- 2001026348
- Keywords
- Diamonds, Mining, Pink diamond, Diamantaires, Crystals, Stones, Carbon crystals, Geology, Eira Thomas,
- Bookseller catalogs
- Geology;