Biographer Stewart to discuss works at bookstore
From Manchester Journal Thursday, July 17, 1997

By Meredith Bloom

Ever since Whitney Stewart took off to spend the summer in Europe alone when she was 16 years old, her mother knew she would be an explorer. IT is Stewart’s exploring instinct that has prompted her to bring the stories of world-class adventurers and human rights advocates into the forefront with her series of biographies for young people.

Her latest book, titles "Aung San Suu Kyi, Fearless Voice of Burma," Lerner Publications, profiles Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize winner and the leader of the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). To complete all of her biographies, Stewart makes it a point to meet and interview all her subjects. She traveled to Burma in 1995 during a tumultuous time and risked her own safety at every turn.

"It was very important for her to tell everyone she was just a tourist and wasn’t there to research this book," said Carlin Whitney Scherer, Stewart’s mother. "She was followed wherever she went."

Due to the political uprising, Stewart could only spend 35 minutes interviewing Aung San Suu Kyi, but she spent the previous year doing intensive research and other supportive interviews prior to her trip to Burma.

Personally interviewing her subjects is something Stewart is committed to, according to Scherer. "She feels you can’t write a biography if you don’t’ explore it." Scherer said.

Stewart will be at the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester on Saturday, July 19, at 7p.m. to present a slide show about Aung San Suu Kyi and her Burma experience. There will be a book signing immediately following the slide presentation.

Since she was a child, Stewart has spent many summers and ski vacations at her grandfather’s farm in Bondville, which has been in the family since 1946. Although she now lives in New Orleans with her husband and son, Stewart has made a point to return to Vermont almost every year to visit her mother who still resides in Bondville.

Stewart began her love of adventure early with her summer trip to France. Her sense of adventure combined with her life-long dream of writing for children. While she attended Brown University, she was determined to make her college major fit her. She designed an independent major in Language and Semiotics and wrote a thesis on children’s books. She decided to focus on biographies for children, which she remembered from her own childhood as being dull and fictionalized. This research turned out to be part of her inspiration to write biographies for children.

Stewart spent some time as a travel agent, and she was able to visit many places, further whetting her desire for adventure and more travel. She took a trip with her mother to China and Tibet in 1986, and was taken with the areas' spirituality as she biked through the countryside's small villages. Stewart became fascinated with Buddhism while researching her first biography on the 14th Dalai Lama. She is now a practicing Buddhist and all of her books carry messages of peace, non-violence and human rights, which she believes are imperative for young, people to learn. Her books are written for a third- to eighth-grade level, and are all just over 100 pages long.

The Himalayas proved to be the source of her next biography subject is well, Sir Edmund Hillary. She accompanied Hillary on a climb when he was 72 in the Everest area. This. Would be Hillary's last time on Everest, and the experience gave Stewart the inspiration she would need to write his biography.

Stewart wrote a review of Jon Krakauer's, book Into Thin Air, which chronicles the May 1996 Mt. Everest tragedy. Krakauer was a participant in one of the expeditions that lost members while trying to summit. He is regarded as one of the most eloquent spokespeople from the event.

Clear descriptions about obscure political 'and religious entanglings of her subjects make Stewart's biographies a favorite in schools and libraries.

Scherer said her daughter began writing books for this age group because she thought that older children would enjoy reading non-fiction biographies and that they would appreciate Stewart's honest, straightforward descriptions.

"She hated how (writers) talked baby talk to children of this age," Scherer said.