Views of Nature

December 31, 2014 By John E. Riutta in Newly Noted Books Tags: book, chicago, History, humboldt, natural, nature, News, translation, university, views

Back in July of 2014, The University of Chicago Press published Mark W. Person’s new English translation of Alexander von Humboldt’s famous collection of essays titled Ansichten der Natur (Views of Nature). This work, one of von Humboldt’s most influential – as well as reportedly his own personal favorite – has not seen a new English translation, and as a result has been essentially unavailable in that language, for over one hundred years.

Unfortunately, despite von Humboldt’s tremendous influence on many of the world’s greatest writers and naturalists, including Goethe, Darwin, Emerson, and Thoreau, outside of specialist circles, this new translation has not received the attention it richly deserves. This is something I intend to do my part in helping to rectify at the earliest opportunity.

John E. Riutta

Founder and publisher of The Well-read Naturalist. Inveterate autodidact. Has repeatedly been found out standing in many fields. Plays well with otters.

→ John E. Riutta

1 Comment

Caroline Murray
January 1, 2015 @ 02:26

You may be interested to know that the Cambridge Library Collection (www.cambridge.org/clc) reissues very good OLD books on natural history. We have lists in life sciences, and botany and horticulture. Recently reissued titles include Withering’s account of the foxglove, and Holt-White’s two-volume life and letters of Gilbert White. Best wishes for 2015!

Recent Reviews

The Marvelously Multifaceted Mr. Newton
January 22, 2023
Most of us likely first heard the name Isaac Newton when we were in primary school. For some, it may have been in a classroom; for others it may have been while viewing a television program – most likely a cartoon. However, in most all instances, I’d be willing to wager that the name was […]
Then There Were Dragons
November 20, 2022
The phrase “here there be dragons,” so famously seen on old maps indicating places where there were great and mysterious dangers to be found, was not so very long ago not simply a metaphor. In fact, no less an authority on natural philosophy (what would later become known as natural history) than Linnaeus himself included […]
Meeting Your Local Spiders
October 9, 2022
When it comes to lists of common phobias, arachnophobia – the fear of spiders – almost always makes the top ten, and more often than not, the top five. Some have even argued that the fear of spiders, like the fear of snakes, is an innate fear – people are simply born with it thanks […]

Mastodon