The Invention of Nature

New York Times

, 15 September 1869.

2

bonfire in Cleveland: Reported in

New York Times

on 4 April 1918, Nichols 2006, p.409; centennial Cleveland,

New York Herald

, 15 September 1869.

3

Cincinnati and anti-German sentiment: Nichols 2006, p.411.

4

‘severe, pervasive and’: IPCC, Fifth Assessment Synthesis Report, 1 November 2014, p.7.

5

‘There is in fact no’: Wendell Berry, ‘It all Turns on Affection’, Jefferson Lecture 2012,

http://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/wendell-e-berry-lecture

.

6

‘mankind’s mischief’: AH, February 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.216.

7

‘barren’ and ‘ravaged’: AH, 9–27 November 1801, Popayán, AH Diary 1982, p.313.

8

‘fountain with many’: Goethe to Johann Peter Eckermann, 12 December 1826, Goethe and Eckermann 1999, p.183.

A Note on Humboldt’s Publications

1

A Note on Humboldt’s Publications: If not referenced otherwise the information on Humboldt’s publications is based on

Alexander von Humboldts Schriften. Bibliographie der selbständig erschienenen Werke

(Fiedler and Leitner 2000).

2

AH never saw German edition: AH to Cotta, 20 January 1840, AH Cotta Letters 2009, pp.223–4.

3

‘the most prominent work’:

Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,

1843, vol.13, Fiedler and Leitner 2000, p.359.

4

‘It had to be done’: AH to Heinrich Christian Schumacher, 22 May 1843, AH Schumacher Letters 1979, p.112.

5

‘owners of East India’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 16 March 1849, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.360.

6

‘Book of Nature’: AH to Varnhagen, 24 October 1834, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.19; my translation from the German edition AH Varnhagen Letters German 1860, p.13.

A Note on Humboldt’s Publications

The chronology of Alexander von Humboldt’s publications is still muddled today. Not even Humboldt himself knew exactly what was published when and in which language. It doesn’t help that some of the books were published in different formats and editions, or as part of a series, but then also separately as single volumes. His publications related to Latin American became the thirty-four-volume Voyage to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, illustrated with 1,500 engravings. As a reference, I have compiled a list of the publications that are referred to throughout The Invention of Nature, but I have not listed his specialized publications on botany, zoology, astronomy etc.

Publications that were part of the thirty-four-volume ‘Voyage to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent’

Essay on the Geography of Plants

This was the first volume that Humboldt completed after his return from Latin America. It was originally published in German as Ideen zu einer Geographie der Pflanzen and in French as Essai sur la géographie des plantes – both in 1807. The Essay introduced Humboldt’s ideas on plant distribution and nature as a web of life. It was illustrated with the large three-foot-by-two-foot hand-coloured fold-out, his so-called ‘Naturgemälde’ – the mountain with plants placed according to their altitude as well as the columns to the left and to the right with additional information on gravity, atmospheric pressure, temperature, chemical composition and so on. Humboldt dedicated the Essay to his old friend Goethe. It was published in Spanish in the South American journal Semanario in 1809 but never translated into English until 2009.

Views of Nature

This was Humboldt’s favourite book, combining scientific information with poetic landscape descriptions. It was divided into chapters such as ‘Steppes and Deserts’ or ‘Cataracts of the Orinoco’. It was first published in Germany in early 1808 and followed in the same year by a French translation. Views of Nature went through several editions. The third and extended edition was published on Humboldt’s eightieth birthday on 14 September 1849. The same edition was published in English in two competing translations under two titles: Aspects of Nature (1849) and Views of Nature (1850).

Vues des Cordillères et monumens des peuples indigènes de l’Amérique