Books are important in the Loess story: the 20 books are important- are they the most important?- that depends on your interests and your viewpoint. They are listed in roughly chronological order; it is a very subjective list, and selection and discussion relate to personal use and experience.
Every generation enjoys the use of the vast hoard bequeathed to it by antiquity, and transmits that hoard, augmented by fresh acquisitions, to the future ages. Lord Macaulay: Essay on Milton
1. Marsigli 1726
Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli; Danubius Pannonico Mysicus (in Latin) 6 volumes
Marsigli, serving the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was stationed at several convenient places in Central Europe. Convenient that is to make the first European record of loess. His diagrams of the Danube bank were the first representations of loess in situ in a stratigraphic situation. It seems likely that there were earlier representations of loess landscapes in China but we can assign Marsigli priority in Europe. They were published in his great book on the Danube, in 1726. [see LG blog 22 & 25 May 2020]
2. Leonhard 1824
Karl Caesar von Leonhard; Charakteristik der Felsarten; Joseph Englemann Verlag, Heidelberg. Three volumes published in 1823 & 1824. Descriptions of ground materials; volume 3 contains section 89 Loess; this is the defining and descriptive arrival of the loess concept.
Hambach, U., Smalley, I. 2019. Two critical books in the history of loess investigation 'Charakteristik der Felsarten' by Karl Caesar von Leonhard and 'Principles of Geology' by Charles Lyell. Open Geosciences 11, 447-451. doi:https://10.1515/geo-2019-0032
3. Lyell 1833
Charles Lyell; The Principles of Geology; John Murray London 3 volumes 1830-1833. The critical loess material appeared in vol.3. The great success of the Principles meant that loess awareness quickly became worldwide. Lyell revised and republished the Principles throughout his life; the 12th edition was being prepared when he died. The tone became more philosophical as the series progressed and the loess references have disappeared by the time of publication of the 6th edition. Vol.3 (the Loess volume) reached Charles Darwin in Valparaiso in 1834.
4. Richthofen 1877
F.von Richthofen; China: Ergebnisse eigner Reisen und darauf gegrundeter Studien, 5 vols. Dietrich Reimer Berlin. Loess discussions and descriptions in vol.1.
5. Free & Stuntz 1911
E.E.Free, S.C.Stuntz; The movement of soil material by the wind, with a bibliography of eolian geology. U.S.Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils Bulletin 68, 263p.
6. Soergel 1919
W.Soergel; Losse, Eiszeiten und palaolithische Kulturen; Carl Fischer Jena 177p
7. Scheidig 1934
Alfred Scheidig; Der Loss und seine geotechnischen Eigenschaften; Verlag Theodor Steinkopf Dresden u.Leipzig 233p. [Geologie und Verbreitung, Erdstoffphysik, Erdbaumechanik und Geotechnik der Losse und Losslehme, Schluffe, Silte und anderer Stauberden, Aschen und Staube].
It was 1970; I was in the library of the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge. I was visiting David Krinsley who was spending a year as visiting fellow at Churchill College. I think I had arranged to meet him at the Sedgwick Museum, I was waiting for him and idly browsing when I came across a catalogue for Otto Koeltz bookseller- and it listed a copy of Scheidig for sale. Up to that moment it had never occurred to me that I could actually own a copy of this mythical book.
8. Denisov 1953
N.Ya.Denisov; Engineering Properties of Loess and Loess-like Clay Soils. (in Russian) Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel'stvo Moscow 154p. The copy in the Loess Letter Archive is the 2nd edition so its this edition that gets reported; 6000 copies printed. A key work in the study of the hydroconsolidation and structural collapse of loess ground; fig.32 is the iconic picture of the collapse of a canal in Central Asia; when the collapse problem became really apparent- when it began to obsess the geotechnical community in the Soviet Union.
9. Charlesworth 1957
J.K.Charlesworth; The Quaternary Era (with special reference to its glaciation); Arnold, London, 2 volumes, 1700 pages. The great and amazing Quaternary compilation; two substantial volumes. Volume one contains a substantial section on loess. It seems incredible that someone would attempt a survey of all aspects of the Quaternary- involving a very committed bibliographical effort, although Charlesworth did admit that publications in many languages had escaped him. Unfortunately he used a very complicated reference system (unique to him) which was difficult to use. Volume 2 was so thick that it was difficult to manipulate, but it contained a key section of the bibliographic apparatus.
Chapter 26 (vol.1, pp 511-558) deals with loess and has 709 references listed.
Charlesworth 1957 was an amazing scholarly achievement- a comprehensive study of all the literature on the Quaternary; such a task for one scholar, and such an incredible result. The loess section is still relevant and repays study- there are discoveries to be made in the Charlesworth hoard. He quotes Goethe to this effect "Wer kann was Dummes, wer was Kluges denken; Das nicht die Vorwelt schon gedacht?"
10. Woldstedt 1954
Paul Woldstedt; Das Eiszeitalter: Grundlinien einer Geologie des Quartars. Ferdinand Enke Verlag Stuttgart Bd,1. This is a work in three volumes; vol.1 contains the general discussion on loess; more accessible than the Charlesworth account but lacking the amazing detail.
11. Kriger 1965
N.I.Kriger; Loess, its Characteristics and Relation to the Geographical Environment; Izd-vo Nauka Moscow 296p (in Russian). The critical book in the study of Russian loess. For such an important book it is surprisingly little known and appreciated, OCLC reports that it is held by eight libraries worldwide; add to that one copy in the Loess Letter archive- which was supplied by Alexander Alexiev of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The impressive bibliography was published separately by Loess Letter (Loess Letter Supplement 13). Only 1350 copies were printed; see Smalley 1980 p.46 for discussion-entry 16 on this list. The Loess Letter map series published the Kriger 1965 map of loess distribution as its no.1 production, and reproduced the section on the history of loess studies as a Loess Letter Supplement (no.10 June 1986- for the INQUA 1987 Ottawa Congress).
12. Schultz & Frye 1968
C.Bertrand Schultz, John C.Frye; Loess and related eolian deposits of the World; University of Nebraska Press Lincoln 369p. [Proceedings of the 7th INQUA Congress, vol.12].
13. AFEQ 1969
AFEQ; La Stratigraphie des Loess d'Europe (Supplement au Bulletin de l'Association Francaise pour l'Etude du Quaternaire) CNRS-AFEQ Paris 176p.
AFEQ 1969. A bibliographic problem- which only concerns a tiny handful of loessic bibliographers. How shall AFEQ 1969 be described and classified? How can it sensibly be referred to? It needs to stay in view, it represents a critical moment in the history of the INQUA Loess Commission. It was produced for the Paris INQUA meeting of 1969 (8th) and distributed to delegates. The LL Archive contains two copies- those of Aart Brouwer of Leiden University and Claudio Vita-Finzi of University College London. How many were printed? 500? 1000? enough for each delegate to have a copy in their package of conference materials?
OCLC shows quite a good distribution in the world's libraries. It lacks a stipulated editor, and was not commercially published; well before the days of ISBN numbers- not mentioned in Pye (1987), published by CNRS, printed in Marseille.
AFEQ 1969 is Julius Fink's setting out of the plan of action for the INQUA Loess Commission. Before 1969 the Loess Commission was a Sub-Commission, it became a full Commission at the Paris Congress. The Loess Commission was Fink's vehicle- a setting for his vision of the development of loess stratigraphy in Europe- of the contribution of loess investigation to the development of Quaternary science in general.
14. Berg 1964
L.S.Berg; Loess as a product of Weathering and Soil Formation. Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem 207p. Translated from Berg's autobiography 'Climate and Life'
Here is the Berg vision of the processes of loess formation- this is essentially the same view that Berg advanced in 1916; this is the 'in-situ' or 'pedological' theory of loess formation. It is a remarkable book; Berg was a remarkable scholar and he published his loess theory throughout his scholarly life, mostly in Russian. The best version, ironically enough, is probably this IPST version.
15. Smalley Benchmark 1975
Ian J.Smalley; Loess Lithology and Genesis [Benchmark Geology 26] Dowden Hutchinson & Ross Stroudsburg
It was Rhodes Fairbridge's idea- a series of books which would contain the basic, fundamental ideas in the geo-sciences- the 'Benchmark' series in geology. He proposed one on loess in the early 1970s, and, after some consultation it was produced as volume 26. Julius Fink, as President of the INQUA Loess Commission, participated in the discussion and proposed that the volume focus on matters sedimentological rather than stratigraphical. He felt that, at the time, there was too much muddle and confusion in the world of loess stratigraphy that the volume should focus on problems related to origin, nature and distribution; so the focus was 'Lithology & Genesis'
16. Smalley Partial Bibliography 1980
Ian J.Smalley; Loess A Partial Bibliography; GeoBooks(Elsevier) 103p. It is a partial bibliography in two senses; it is partial in the sense that it is not complete- no bibliography can ever be complete, and loess with the wide range of topics, locations and languages has no chance of being complete; and it is partial in that it reflects the interests and opinions of the compiler, who tries to be neutral and even-handed but is victim to his background and education and linguistic proclivities.
GeoBooks in Norwich produced a series of very well made but under-appreciated bibliography volumes, Loess was no.7 in the series. GeoBooks/GeoAbstracts did an excellent job, in pre-internet times, of keeping the geoscience community informed. The GeoAbstracts series was much admired and appreciated and, of course, vanished instantly when Eworld arrived.
17. Liu Tungsheng 1988
Liu Tungsheng (editor); Loess in China (Springer series in Physical Environment 5); China Ocean Press Beijing, Springer-Verlag Berlin 224p. ISBN 3-540-16717. The journal Progress in Physical Geography chose this book as a classic publication.
18. Pye 1987
Kenneth Pye; Aeolian Dust and Dust Deposits. Academic Press London, 334p. ISBN 0-12-568690-0. This is a very good snapshot of loess ground knowledge in the early 1980s.
19. Rozycki 1991
S.Z.Rozycki; Loess and Loess-like Deposits; Ossolineum Polish Academy of Sciences, 187p. ISBN 83-04-03745-9. The Polish language edition was published in 1986 by Studia Geologica Polonica. Copies donated to the Archive by Eric Robinson of University College London and Zdzislav Jary of the University of Wroclaw.
20. Trofimov 2001
V.T.Trofimov (editor); Loess Mantle of the Earth- and its Properties (in Russian); Moscow University Press 464p. ISBN 5-211-04336-7. The copy in the Archive was donated by Andrei Dodonov, who was a contributor. This book is essentially an updating and upgrading of Scheidig 1934; a large section on loess in general, followed by a section devoted to geotechnical aspects and engineering problems. Only 500 copies were printed. Reviewed in Engineering Geology vol.255, p.252.
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