Phenomenal value

[?]n new work by French scholars

If there is anyone anywhere who till has any doubts that, for its size, r ahiti is the most written about stand in the world, then he should ake a look at, and physically feel he weight of, a monumental biblio raphy on the subject that has just >een published in Paris.

The bibliography is the work of •ather Patrick O’Reilly (a French lan, despite his name) and Edouard teitman, who have been engaged on t off and on for the past 28 years.

Entitled Bibliographic de Tahiti et 1 e la Polynesie francaise, the book uns to 1,046 pages and weighs 4 lb oz. It contains 10,501 entries. Its üblishers are the Societe des )ceanistes, Musee de I’Homme, Paris.

Jnlike previous publications of this rganisation, the Bibliographic de 'ahiti is in hard covers.

The new bibliography completes a otable quartet of bibliographies on tie French Pacific islands, which have een published by the Societe des )ceanistes.

13 sections

Like its predecessors, the new ibliography is divided into 13 actions —bibliographies and works of jference; voyages; geology; botany; oology; geography, ethnology; istory; economy; medicine; litera jre; beaux arts; and periodicals, lost sections are further divided ito sub-sections.

Where appropriate, the entries in ach section are arranged chrono igically, so that in the Voyages jction, for example, one progresses 'om books and accounts by the early panish and Dutch explorers, down irough Wallis, Bougainville, Cook, ligh, etc., to such modern travellers s Alain Gerbault and Thor leyerdahl.

Each item in the bibliography— rhether a book, pamphlet, or article i a periodical—is briefly described nd/or evaluated, so that a researcher i likely to have a pretty fair idea of r hat to expect before consulting any em.

The amount of information in the ibliography is positively phenomenal, nd one can only wonder at and dmire the dedication, energy and nthusiasm of the men who have rovided others with such a valuable )oI. —RL. (PRICE: Not available.)