Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0802713203, Hardcover)

Prior to the discovery of continental drift and the birth of islands by volcanic action, a different sort of movement and birth of landmasses took place: the continual cartographic displacement of approximately 27,000 nonexistent islands reputed to exist in the Atlantic and the ontological displacement of the islands from imaginative "existence" on maps and in traveler's tales. Johnson traces the birth, lives, and deaths of seven of these elusive islands of the Atlantic--including their towns, villages, and exotic inhabitants such as St. Ursula and her 11,000 virgin companions (what a lure this must have been to lusty sailors!)--from maps and ship's logs. In the process, he reveals much about the ways in which imagination becomes reality through social consensus and the authority of the printed document.