Should the following question ever come up in a pub quiz, I’d know the answer:
After which person are the most places and species on this planet (and beyond) named?
According to the biography I finished reading months ago but only got round to reviewing now, that person is Alexander von Humboldt.
Apparently, no matter the continent or country, you’ll find a street, a hill, a school, a museum, a library or even an entire town bearing Humboldt’s name.
If you happen to be interested in natural science, you may have come across various species of plants, animals and some minerals named after him.
And even two formation on the Moon and two asteroids are called Humboldt.
All this serves to emphasize how important the man was once considered – not so much he as a person, but his ideas and discoveries.
Born in 1769 and living through a rather unhappy childhood, nobody would have expected the seemingly thick boy, always lagging behind his older brother in lessons, to ever achieve anything much.
And yet, he became THE most famous person alive for a while, and not just in the Western world.
What made him so famous?
He was the first person to explore thoroughly and systematically how everything and everywhere on our small blue planet is connected, and wrote extensively about it, publishing a large number of books, some of which were hugely popular in their time.
He wanted to know everything there is to know, cramming his head with facts and figures, but also coming to the conclusion that facts and figures alone were only part of the picture - one needed to grasp things with all senses, and grasp them he did.
His expeditions lead him from what was then thought to be the highest mountain in the world, the Chimborazo in the Andes, to the endless forests of Russia. He collected literally tons of material for further research - plants and parts of plants, animals, minerals, drawings he and his companions made of buildings, statues, costumes and inscriptions of other (ancient) cultures, and more.
He worked feverishly all the time, rarely sleeping more than a few hours, and caring little for the things young, wealthy men enjoyed back then; balls, dinners, social gatherings, hunting for sport etc. were things he couldn't care less about.
In between expeditions, he worked on his books, wrote tens of thousands of letters, listened to and gave lectures at university, met with like-minded scientists and friends, and planned his next trip.
What he saw during his expeditions gave him a deep understanding for our cosmos - a term he brought into wide use and in the sense we apply it today.
He observed how deforestation and agricultural activites changed landscapes beyond recognition, driving out species of plants and animals of their natural habitat, and ultimately threatening the very existence of the people who caused it all.
Sounds familiar?
And yet, 200 years later, while we all know about the intricate web of life on our planet, we just keep destroying it at ever-increasing speed.
As a person, Alexander was not exactly a nice man. He certainly could turn on the charm when needed (for instance, to get funding for an expedition), but he had no patience with people who were of slower thinking (or talking!) as himself (and that was the case with 99 % of his fellow humans), and was infamous for making nasty, sharp-witted comments about others.
On the other hand, he was a loyal friend and great supporter of young scientists, and genuinely loved his brother and sister-in-law.
He hated the burden of fame, sometimes doing the rounds of several dinner parties and balls in one evening - all to serve the greater good of science, but nonetheless detested. True happiness he only found when he was out there in the wilderness, high on a mountain or deep in a forest, exploring, accumulating knowledge, grasping life in all its forms and with all his senses.
The book is VERY well written, highly readable without being condescending. Of all non-fictions works I have read so far, this must be the one with the most footnotes.
I can highly recommend it; it has certainly been translated into English. The author is a German-British historian and writer. Her fascination with her subject shines through every page. Her wikipedia entry is here.
And if you want to read up on Humboldt without (or before) delving into the book, his wikipedia entry is here.
A great Thank You goes to my sister who lent me the book.
I checked and we have Humboldt in Illinois too! A city in southern Illinois and Humboldt Park in Chicago. I checked my library and they have Andrea Wulf's book, although the title is The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World. They also have a graphic novel version by her called The Adventures of Alexander Von Humboldt. I will check it out. Thanks, Meike!
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome, Ellen! I didn't know Andrea Wulf has also published a graphic novel version, that sounds interesting - I do not have much experience with graphic novels, although I was an avid reader of comic books as a kid.
DeleteAh, I suspected this was the book you were referring to in your comment on my blog. A magnificent piece of work isn't it? I did try reading her book "Magnificent Rebels" but floundered (unmagnificently), most of the people mentioned were unknown to me and many seemed to have very similar names. I must try another of her works, probably one about the early gardeners.
ReplyDeleteIt was my first and so far only read by this author, John. In the back, some of her other work is listed, and the one about the gardeners sounds good. But "Humboldt" is definitely a masterpiece.
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