Huw Lewis-Jones is a historian and author who travels regularly to the Arctic and Antarctica as a polar guide. Kari Herbert has written several books on exploration and is the daughter of polar explorer Sir Wally Herbert. Huw and Kari are married and live by the sea in Cornwall, England.
Robert Macfarlane is a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and the author of numerous books about exploration, travel, and landscape.
Best Travel Books of the Year
-Financial Times (UK)
Top 10 travel books This magical book celebrates the artwork
of explorers, bringing together more than 400 beautiful sketches
and paintings produced by 70 explorers from the 16th century to the
present. The book is compiled by historian and polar guide Huw
Lewis-Jones and writer-photographer Kari Herbert - daughter of the
polar explorer Sir Walter Wally Herbert - who have had the enviable
task of diving into the archives to find work from Captain Scott,
Charles Darwin and Abel Tasman, as well as lesser-known explorers,
such as Adela Breton, who recorded Mexico's Maya monuments.
-The Guardian (UK)
Starred Review The intersection of adventure, art, and
memoir doesn't get any better than this title, edited by polar
guides and husband-and-wife team Lewis-Jones (Face to Face)
and -Herbert (Polar Wives). This delicious oversized sampler
of illustrated field notes offers alphabetically arranged excerpts
from the notebooks of 70 naturalists, ethnographers, scientists,
and mountaineers, famous and obscure, from John White's 1585
depictions of Algonquin Indians to Apollo 12 astronaut Alan
Bean's paintings of rock collecting on the moon. A brief biography
of each person, with highlights from their travels, accompanies
high-quality illustrations: not only landscapes and wildlife but
also portraits of long-vanished people, architecture, and customs,
plus journal ephemera-sure to please sketchbook lovers. Most
predate the mid-20th century, so predictably, few women and even
fewer nonwhite artists are featured; issues of colonialism and
appropriation are touched on, but these are not in-depth studies.
Rather, they are tantalizing vignettes of those who took up pencil,
paints, and paper to communicate firsthand the wonder of their
discoveries.
-Library Journal
This compilation of excerpts and facsimiles of 70 notebooks
belonging to explorers throughout history is as educational as it
is visually enticing. Readers will lap up John James Audubon's
Carolina Parakeet drawn in June of 1811, Charles Darwin's 1837 tree
of life sketch, and Alexandrine Tinne's self-portraits at a ball in
1855 and in a Bedouin tent a year later, among many other
illustrations. However, this collection proves to be as much about
words, for the writing is exemplary. The exquisite, informative
reproductions are supported by hearty and wistful quotes from the
explorers and by the authors' detailed captions... Lewis-Jones and
Herbert's introduction and essays by four living explorers, most
notably Wade Davis, raise the form high. Brief biographies
contribute finely crafted, economical rhetoric as well as
well-researched material and sound opinions. This bountiful book
provides delicious discovery in itself, albeit from the comfort of
a chair by the fire.
-Publishers Weekly
"Explorers' Sketchbooks: The Art of Discovery and Adventure,
by Lewis-Jones and writer Kari Herbert, daughter of polar explorer
Wally Herbert, which containsillustrated accounts from 60 men and
women whose sketches record the delights and dangers of journeys
through tundras, deserts, mountains and rain forests." - Artists
Magazine
A Book of the Year But for pure unchallenging delight, I
most enjoyed an astonishing collection of works of art created by
explorers and adventurers down the centuries. It is a beautiful
multi-edited sort of album, entitled Explorers' Sketchbooks...If it
were not such a sumptuous volume it would be glorious for reading
in the bath.
-The Spectator
An inspiration and resource for nature study, history, or
geography. Or, just page through the book, pretending to be an
explorer from a day gone by.
-GeekDad
Explorers' Sketchbooks: The Art of Discovery and Adventure is a
stunningly beautiful book. It was so neat to look at the first
written record of places and things that are so very commonplace
today. I was amazed by the stunning artwork created in such extreme
circumstances as the Artic, deserts, rainforests and the
Antarctic-and most without modern equipment! Explorers'
Sketchbooks: The Art of Discovery and Adventure offers a peek into
a time when the only way to share what you saw with others was to
draw it, and explorer's discoveries took months, or even years, to
be shared with the public. Their work is beautiful to look at and
fascinating to read. As neat as it was to look at the work of
familiar explorers, it was also fun to discover lesser known
explorers and their discoveries.
-PlanoReads
In 'Explorers' Sketchbooks, ' a selection of field notes and
illustrations of 70 different adventuresome travelers, Huw
Lewis-Jones and Kari Herbert introduce us to the more peaceful and
positive sides of exploration. The documents they offer capture the
sense of wonder and awe that travel has evoked in many souls brave
and lucky enough to have visited the world's remotest places...The
book's author-editors have done a terrific job in selecting
spectacular images and documents to reproduce...Anyone with an
interest in travel will find 'Explorers' Sketchbooks' a source of
inspiration. Even those well versed in exploration history will
discover new information here.
-The Wall Street Journal
Recommended
-Scientific American, April 2017
This is an outstandingly beautiful book, visually very
impressive...The wealth of illustrations is one of the principal
joys...A fascinating publication of very high quality that, we are
sure, will appeal to a broad range of readers.
-Seaways' Ships in Scale magazine
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