Avatar Aang:
An Annotated Bibliography

A Reprint of Part 314 (Avatar Aang) of the Annotated Bibliography of the Avatar, 20th ed.

Compiled and published by the Society for Avataric Researches

Preface to the Present Edition

Since the first edition of the Annotated Bibliography of the Avatar, it has proved its worth to scholars time and time again. It has evolved, since its humble beginnings, into a near-comprehensive list of any sort of literature about the Avatar's various incarnations. The Bibliography, as the first resource most scholars consult in commencing any research on any aspect of the Avatar, has become an indispensable aid to Avataric research. In fact, the Avatar's history being so entwined with the world's history, the Bibliography has begun to see use by researchers for whom the Avatar is only a minor aspect of their research.

It has, for a long time, been suggested that the section on Avatar Aang (Part 314 in the Bibliography) be published separately from the rest of the Bibliography. Avatar Aang, being one of the most historically important incarnations of the Avatar (though, unfortunately, less publicly recognized than one may expect), has had an immense amount of material written about him. It follows, then, that consulting the Bibliography for information on Avatar Aang has become somewhat cumbersome. It is for the benefit of the many scholars of Avatar Aang, and for historians in general of that tumultuous time, that we present this volume to the world.

Preface to the 20th Edition of the Annotated Bibliography of the Avatar

The Annotated Bibliography of the Avatar has changed and expanded much since its inclusion as an appendix to the third edition of the much-lauded Lives of the Avatars. Since then, it has become an invaluable starting point for any researcher of the Avatar. Scholars everywhere testify to the usefulness of the Bibliography as an aid to finding and evaluating resources in the course of their research. More importantly, the Bibliography provides an indication of the ground that has been covered in Avataric research and what work still remains to be done. It is an invaluable list of what information we have and what resources we have to work from. It was the Bibliography, after all, that has been credited with the popularization of the fact that Avatar Aang had written extensive travel memoirs of the many places he travelled to in his lifetime—a discovery which confirmed the historicity of the Cave of Two Lovers, whose location was later found with the aid of Avatar Aang's work.

In light of the recent public interest and resulting explosion of literature about Avatars Gu and Kyoshi (Parts 52 and 312 respectively), we have made innumerable additions to their sections of the Bibliography. For the 20th edition we have also undertaken a complete revision of the annotations of the sources concerning Avatars Chengge and Aaldrup (Parts 189 and 190) in light of Dr. Kyahamma's famed series of papers, which have brought about—so to speak—a paradigm shift in the historical evaluation of these two Avatars. We have added also the literature on these two Avatars published since the release of the previous edition of the Bibliography, including Dr. Kyahamma's papers themselves. Finally, in a nod to the far-reaching influence of the Avatar, we have added to the section for Avatar Aang (Part 314) the various papers written about the Infinitesimals Priority dispute, including the seminal papers on the study of infinitesimals and their applications written by Chief Sokka and Firelord Zuko themselves. It has been argued that the inclusion of such publications in the Bibliography is irrelevant, but in consideration of Avatar Aang's role in the resolution of this particular controversy we feel ourselves justified in doing so.

We follow the first edition of the Bibliography in sorting our listings by importance, placing first what we—in our humble judgement—consider to be most important. In doing so we adhere to the scholastic traditions of all four nations.

Where we have found a particular source to be particularly rare or difficult to access, we make a note of this; otherwise it may be assumed that the source can be found at any reasonably large research library.

Following the precedent set by the third edition of the Bibliography, papers published by the great scholar Avatar Hong are listed under the heading of the Avatar they are concerned with, not in the section devoted to himself. Those papers not concerned with any Avatar are listed in his own section (Part 321) along with the other works about him.