'Miracles' worker
From Times Picayune Sunday May 12, 1996

By Peg Kohlepp

When New Orleanian Whitney Stewart writes her intriguing biographies for children, her previous occupations as travel agent and research assistant serve her well. The subjects of her biographies - the 14th Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual and political leader; Sir Edmund Hillary, the mountaineer and dedicated advocate for the Himalayan peoples; and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient and activist for the Burmese democratic movement - have drawn her to such far-flung and exotic parts of the world as India, Nepal and Myanmar. Her exacting research standards have taken her to the basement of the National World Geographic Society in London and the byways of the Internet.

Perched on a chair in the early morning calm of her Uptown home office, surrounded by books on the art and mythology of the East, photographs, Tibetan thankas (wall hangings used as focal points in Tibetan meditation), Stewart recently took time out from the busy International Reading Association Convention to "slow things down" and reflect on the series of connections, or "miracles" as she calls them, that has given her- the opportunity to meet with the Dalai Lama four times, spend a month trekking in Nepal with Edmund Hillary and to brave the dangerous political climate in Myanmar to meet with and interview Sun Kyi for a book due in the fall.

Each of these "miracles" could be viewed as coincidence; or you might think of them as the result of an uncanny knack, for following markers down predestined paths to people and places Stewart finds meaningful. Stewart has made connections that have enlivened her work, giving readers a strong understanding of place and asense of her subjects' characters.

In her work there is a connecting thread of Buddhism. Stewart, who is a devoted follower of Tibetan Buddhism, maintains this is unintentional. But she is interested in how these people translated personal quests or ambitions into greater causes. She suspects this interest comes from early personal circumstances that drove her to strive to define herself, observing "... leaders often went through aperiod of where they just had fire in their bones; when they are just driven to get there. 'Those that transcend the negative aspects of driving ambition, I find I admire."

Her recently published book, 'Sir Edmund Hillary: To Everest and Beyond' (photographs by Anne B. Keiser, Lerner Publications, $16.95, ages 12 and up), has as one chapter's epigraph a quote from Hillary: "Each of us has to discover his own path. Some paths will be spectacular, others peaceful and quiet." Hillary's passionate interest in mountain climbing led him to the summit of Mount Everest in 1953, when he and climbing companion Tenzing Norgay were the first to conquer its dangerous ascent and stand atop the highest mountain in the world. He found in the rigors of mountain climbing a release for his extraordinary physical drive and his strong attraction to adventure and exploration. The notoriety from his Mount Everest success led him a to life filled with speaking tours and mountaineering expeditions, as well as participation with the New Zealand team in an trans-Antarctic expedition led by Sir Vivian Fuchs, British scientist and explorer. Hillary took on his own projects - one combining a search for the Himalayan yeti, the Abominable Snowman, with high-altitude physiology research; another, a life-affirming trip undertaken after the tragic deaths of his wife and daughter, ' tip the Ganges River from its mouth at the Bay of Bengal to its source at Badrinath in the Himalayan mountains. Hillary maintains an active interest in the people and the ecology of the Himalayas, spearheading programs to bring education, economic opportunities and environmental awareness to the Sherpa people.

Stewart's writing vividly conveys Hillary's drive to test his endurance, the physical dangers and discomforts involved in the expeditions and the redeeming outcome of his life's ambitions realized in his humanitarian projects. The book is generously illustrated with photographs and maps and contains a selected bibliography and index.