Whole world in his hands

By Phoebe Falconer in the NZ Herald today, December 3.

Mapmaking contributor Roger Smith (left) struggles to hold aloft Earth. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Earth, the world's largest atlas, was launched at Whitcoulls in Wellington yesterday.
New Zealand's entry in the tome was overseen by Roger Smith of Geographx, a Wellington-based mapping company, also responsible for all of South America and some of the US.

The atlas, which weighs 35kg including its leatherbound case, has a limited print run of 1000 gold copies (not available generally in New Zealand) and 2000 blue copies. For those who cannot afford the $6000 price tag for the blue edition, a smaller version, Earth Concise, will sell for around $150.
The hand-bound atlas' 580 pages contain 350,000 words, 800 photographs and hundreds of maps. The concept of such a large atlas is the idea of publisher Gordon Cheers of Millennium House in Sydney.