Catch Me If You Can

Abagnale, F.

ISBN 10: 0448165384 / ISBN 13: 9780448165387

Published by Grosset & Dunlap, NY, 1980

About this Item

First printing. Signed and dated by Abagnale on the endpage. The dustjacket shows some edgewear with several nicks and is protected in a mylar cover.

Seller Inventory # 029723

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Catch Me If You Can
• Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap, NY
• Publication Date: 1980
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0448165384
• ISBN 13: 9780448165387
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Biography
  • Signed By Author

About this title

Synopsis

An ex-confidence man and master impostor recounts his crimes, capture, imprisonment, and current career as a highly paid crime consultant

Review

When this true-crime story first appeared in 1980, it made the New York Times bestseller list within weeks. Two decades later, it's being rereleased in conjunction with a film version produced by DreamWorks. In the space of five years, Frank Abagnale passed $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in every state and 26 foreign countries. He did it by pioneering implausible and brazen scams, such as impersonating a Pan Am pilot (puddle jumping around the world in the cockpit, even taking over the controls). He also played the role of a pediatrician and faked his way into the position of temporary resident supervisor at a hospital in Georgia. Posing as a lawyer, he conned his way into a position in a state attorney general's office, and he taught a semester of college-level sociology with a purloined degree from Columbia University.

The kicker is, he was actually a teenage high school dropout. Now an authority on counterfeiting and secure documents, Abagnale tells of his years of impersonations, swindles, and felonies with humor and the kind of confidence that enabled him to pull off his poseur performances. "Modesty is not one of my virtues. At the time, virtue was not one of my virtues," he writes. In fact, he did it all for his overactive libido--he needed money and status to woo the girls. He also loved a challenge and the ego boost that came with playing important men. What's not disclosed in this highly engaging tale is that Abagnale was released from prison after five years on the condition that he help the government write fraud-prevention programs. So, if you're planning to pick up some tips from this highly detailed manifesto on paperhanging, be warned: this master has already foiled you. --Lesley Reed