A Brace of Bibliographers

A brace of bibliographers: S.C.Stuntz (1911) and M.D.Warnock (1950). Stuntz on air-borne soils in general and Warnock on loess deposits in the USA.

OP 17  Harding, D.E., Smalley, I.J. 1988.  Warnock revisited: a bibliography of North American loess 1805-1955.  Leicester University Geography Department Occasional Paper 17, 66p.
This now has an OCLC number 20534913, and it always had an ISBN number; given as 870474 16 3 in the volume and appearing as 187047 4163 9781 8704 74160 online. This is essentially 'Bibliography on the Loess' by M.D.Warnock, published by the US Bureau of Reclamation in 1950; 403 references. Attention is drawn to 334 R.J.Russell on Lower Mississippi valley loess.

OP19 Smalley, I.J.  1991.  The First Great Loess Bibliography: Stuntz and Free - republished 1911-1991.  Leicester University Geography Department Occasional Paper 19, 93p. This is the bibliography from 'The Movement of Soil Material by the Wind' by E.E.Free, US Department of Agrculture Bureau of Soils Bulletin 68; the title page indicates a Bibliography of Eolian Geology by S,C.Stuntz and E.E.Free, but the bibliography is the work of S.C.Stuntz. And an amazing bibliography it is; it should be famous, celebrated, well-known- held up as an example of creative scientific bibliographies It should be admired and talked about. The good news is that it is readily available, OP19 may be difficult to get hold of but the entire Bulletin 68 is now readily available online thanks to Google Books, nicely presented, looks good on screen. Bulletin 68 has been reprinted by various 'print to order' publishers, perhaps the best known is Kessinger, although there are others:
Amazon offers Free & Stuntz 288p, Palala Press 2016, ISBN 10- 1357486065; OCLC 5718344, but the best news about the Stuntz bibliography is that it is available online, in good shape and at no cost.

Five Facilitators [in Loess Research]

Five facilitators:  Julius Fink, Marton Pecsi, Liu Tung sheng, Edward Derbyshire, Slobodan Markovic. Each one a considerable loess scholar in his own right but also a facilitator, an organiser, an enabler- someone pushing the whole field of loess scholarship by virtue of a great determination and a wealth of organising ability (and setting a great example).

Julius Fink (1918-1981) initiated organised loess activity. Perhaps a small condition should be attached to that statement. There was a moment of organisation which led to the American Journal of Science loess symposium in 1945, but that was transient and local. The real beginning can be placed at the 6th INQUA Congress, held in Poland in 1961. The sub-commission of loess stratigraphy of the Stratigraphy Commission of the International Union for Quaternary Research- was invented by Fink and the founding symposium was held at the 1961 INQUA Congress. He invited Liu Tung sheng and the paper presented by Liu, which showed multiple palaeosols in the Chinese loess, can be considered as the initiation of modern views of the Quaternary.

Marton Pecsi (1923-2003) is our second facilitator. He took over the presidency of the Loess Commission from Fink at the 10th INQUA Congress in Birmingham in 1977. The Sub-commission became a full Commission at the 8th Congress in 1969 (and stayed a full commission until INQUA was rebuilt in 2003). The Commission was a great achievement by Fink; it shaped and developed the study of loess and has provided a lasting influence. Julius Fink (1918-1981): first facilitator, organised what was really a relatively local enterprise; the focus was on east and central Europe and the tasks were fairly limited- essentially to investigate the loess stratigraphy of the region and to prepare a detailed loess map of Europe. Pecsi enlarged the aims; he wanted the commission to function on a world-wide basis and to expand the research focus. He proposed that geotechnical loess research should be pursued and that funding sources for loess investigation should be sought. He was president of the loess commission from 1977 to 1991. Early in his presidential period the Western Pacific Working Group was formed and organised loess study really did become worldwide. The WPWG was initiated by Jim Bowler of ANU Canberra and brought together scholars from China, Australia and New Zealand. This was at a time when Chinese scholars were just re-entering the world of science after the disturbances caused by the Cultural Revolution. The Loess Commission aided in the re-incorporation of Chinese science into world science. Issue 152/3 of Quaternary International is dedicated to Marton Pecsi and contains details of his life and career.

Liu Tung sheng (1917-2008). In 1991 the INQUA Congress (the 13th) was in Beijing; Liu Tung sheng was the Congress president and then president of the executive committee. He was a loess scholar par excellence and for many years led the Chinese loess research effort. He went to Australia in 1980 for the first of the WPWG field trips, and in 1987 was awarded an honorary doctorate by ANU Canberra. The Liu & Chang paper which he presented at the 1961 Congress in Poland could have been the most significant loess paper ever; it demonstrated the presence of multiple palaeosols in the Chinese loess- and therefore the succession of many cold and warm phases in the Quaternary period. The multi-event Quaternary was born. The handful of loess papers at the Fink symposium in 1961 became the cornucopia of loess papers at Beijing 1991. Liu led loess research to a glorious climax.(see Quaternary International 198: 2009)

Edward Derbyshire. 1999-the Great LoessFest in Heidelberg & Bonn. This was nominally organised by Edward Derbyshire, Ludwig Zoeller & Ian Smalley but ED was the main facilitator. LZ arranged the events on the ground but ED made this amazing event possible. People were enabled to attend who had never dreamt of attending such a meeting. Ed organised the research programme on the loess landslides in the Lanzhou region; he wrestled a large grant from the EU which made a huge contribution to furthering Chinese and European loess landslide research. He was briefly secretary of INQUA but did not find the task to his taste, but he was a remarkable facilitator in the world of loess research.(see Quaternary International 334/5: 2014).

Slobodan Markovic. 2006- the Marsigli Loess meeting; the focus restored to East/Central Europe. The emergence of Serbia as a leading loess nation, the move to prominence by the University of Novi Sad, a facilitator standing at the confluence of the Danube and the Tisza (and also at the confluence of the Danube and the Sava). The 2006 loess meeting in Novi Sad carried the momentum of loess research a significant step forward, it offered a new regional focus for loess research and demonstrated the real progress which had been accomplished towards Julius Fink's aims of loess study across central and eastern Europe. (see Quaternary International 198; 2009)

Danube 2018; Danube 1978