John Stewart (7) (1952–)

This 2-volume, 1700+ page work is a comprehensive gazetteer of the world's southernmost continent. With thousands of articles on geographic landmarks, historic expeditions, and polar wildlife, Antarctica had entries on (almost) every topic I cared to look up -- from leopard seals and penguins to Amundsen and Shackleton to McMurdo Sound and Mount Vinson and meteorites. Most articles are brief but thorough. Location entries include latitude and longitude. Articles about ships, stations, and show more people give history, dates, and significance. The most comprehensive stories tend to be reserved for the expeditions. The British Imperial Transarctic Expedition entry, for instance, gives an almost day by day shorthand account of the most amazing survival story in the annals of exploration. I've read much about the South Pole and environs and this is truly a worthy reference.

(Post-script: I searched for and read at least 100 articles in the encyclopedia. The only entry I looked for but didn't find therein was for Lynne Cox, an American cold water swimmer who defied all odds to swim a mile in Antarctica's freezing ocean water. The event was the climax of a remarkable book in itself Swimming to Antarctica. Her story might be trivial with regards to the continent, but wish it was included in this comprehensive work.)

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I'm not going to lie, after spending nearly a decade studying extreme environments and researching historical records of polar exploration, I thought I had learned just about everything there was to know about Antarctica. John Stewart's "Antarctica: An Encyclopedia" made me rethink how much I thought I knew. This two volume hardcover consists of 1758 pages, each page divided into three columns and written in a relatively small font. This book goes over nearly every landmark, every glacier, show more and every person of interest in the entire history of Antarctica. I find it difficult to imagine if there were any that were missed. Of course, it is not reasonable to read a nearly 2000 page encyclopedia to verify, but I will state that any person interested in Antarctica who needs a solid reference encyclopedia should consider this book. The only thing that I can imagine would make this a better book is if there were some photos or a map like many other encyclopedias would have. show less

This book should prove fascinating to anyone with even a passing interest in the last continent. As someone who grew up reading about Scott and Amundsen, and of Shackleton and "the worst journey in the world", I found this book an irresistible cornucopia of information about the Antarctic and the South Pole. There are almost 1800 pages, in two volumes, with entries ranging from the incidental (the name of Admiral Byrd's terrier, for instance) to multi-page essays on expeditions, ships, and show more regions.

The author has a delightful writing style, offering droll asides that serve up a chuckle. For example, in describing 'Fashion Lane', a treacherous area of crevasses, he informs us that it took a survey team two weeks to get through a 30-foot-wide area, since "apparently they would not go around it". In a discussion of Cook's ship 'The Resolution', he laments that when one of the crew, James Banks, resigned, "his exit deprived the reader (and the writer of this book) of a good entry under B". Rest assured, however, that he does have many good entries under B, such as that for one Roger Banks, who "became notorious for his dinners, which often consisted of pate de fois gras de dead seal, followed by road kill; he would often go to dinners accompanied by his pet hen..."

I defy anyone with a sense of adventure not to enjoy delving in and reading about the explorers and heroes of yesteryear, while those with a professional interest in the Antarctic will find it a comprehensive study, covering even minor figures and geographical features. Stewart has done an excellent job, and I expect that this will prove to be the standard reference on the subject. Highly recommended. show less

This is an extraordinary labor of love, a four-year effort to expand and update the 1990 first edition, which won a Library Journal Best Reference award. It is a direct-entry encyclopedia in two volumes, with 1758 pages, 30,000 entries, an extensive bibliography, and numerous cross-references. While people, expeditions, and general topics are described, the greatest percentage of the work serves as a narrative gazetteer, bringing together information from various English and non-English show more sources and presenting it in readable English, often for the first time. For the researcher, student, or aficionado, there is an enormous amount of information which is either unavailable online or scattered about in numerous locations. In the cases of many geological features, maps and satellite images are easily available online, but the Encyclopedia provides details not readily handy, including naming dates, lists of expedition members, and details which may correct previous data. As dry as this may sound, it can be quite amusing, and I found myself moving from entry to entry following references in the various articles. Here is an example which shows several of the points described above:

Entry searched = CREANEY NUNATAKS
Every entry I checked online, from the Australian Antarctic Data Centre (http://data.aad.gov.au/) to Wikipedia, stated that this feature was named for David B. Creaney, an aviation electrician at Ellsworth Station during the winter season of 1957, for whom they give no additional information. Here is the Encyclopedia’s entry in full (p. 369):

Creaney Nunataks. 83°14′S, 51°43′W. Rising to 1475 m, SW of the Herring Nunataks, and 9 km W of Mount Lechner, in the W portion of the Forrestal Range, in the Pensacola Mountains. Mapped from USN air photos taken in 1964, and from USGS ground surveys conducted in 1965-66. Named by US-ACAN in 1968, for a man who doesn’t exist. The real person is David Bartholomew “Dave” Greaney, Jr. [sic] (b. Feb. 16, 1930, Chicago), VX-6 aviation electrician who wintered-over at Ellsworth Station in 1957. One day he got beaten up by a penguin. The feature is shown with its erroneous name on a U.S. map of 1969, and the name was accepted by UK-APC on Nov. 3, 1971, which shows that they don’t check either.

There is also a cross reference from Greaney to Creaney Nunataks. If you want to find out who his coworkers were at Ellsworth Station that winter, check out the entry for the Station, where all 39 men are listed, including enlisted man Ronald D. “Brownie” Brown (the youngest man in the group, his tractor came within an ace of plunging down a 900-foot crevasse one day. There is no cross reference for Brown, but there is for the team’s leader, Finn Ronne (whose management style created problems, there can be no doubt about that), where his nine outings to Antarctica and his successes (including proof that Antarctica is a continent) are briefly described. From there, of course, one can meander along through Ronne’s expeditions, co-workers, and discoveries.

Any large, regional, or university library would find this a fine purchase, and I’m sure polar researchers, and those for whom Antarctica is a hobby, will find it endlessly informative and entertaining. I certainly will. show less