As you probably know, MSL staff work on a wide variety of cartographic projects—GIS, textbooks, highway maps, and everything in between. We've also been pleased over the years to create maps for a number of trade books issued by major publishers. When our clients gain special recognition for works that we helped them create, we're even happier. But we didn't expect what happened with The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T. J. Stiles, published in hardcover by Alfred Knopf, a unit of Random House, in early 2009.

The book, a detailed biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt—who earned a vast fortune with steamship lines and railroads—won the National Book Award for nonfiction last autumn. Then in April the book also won the Pulitzer Prize for biography. The First Tycoon has received glowing reviews in major publications across the country, and is now available in paperback from Vintage Books.

MSL created six black and white maps to supplement the text, using content specifications provided by the author, and edited copy accompanied by map size and style guidelines from the publisher. The maps range in scale from a street map of Manhattan showing growth of the city over the decades during the 1800s, to a map of North and Central America depicting Vanderbilt's steamship lines. Our staff created the maps using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop software, which we use for most of our production work.

The First Tycoon is one of several major books issued recently that have contained MSL maps. For example, The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today, by Ted Conway, is another notable book that Random House enlisted our assistance to produce. We are, of course, always happy to see authors reach print with their work, and enjoy working with publishers to ensure timely, cost-effective production. But it's particularly nice to see authors and publishers recognized for their efforts.