This is the first English-language biography to open up areas of Von Humboldt's life and work previously only accessible to those with knowledge of Spanish, German, and French (the languages Von Humboldt employed to compile his works). Full of new perspectives, Dr McCrory's biography reveals the achievements of a remarkable European whose thirst for knowledge was as deep as his passion to help his fellow man.
Inspired by the life and times of Alexander von Humboldt, 1769-1859 , this biography follows Von Humboldt, who is considered the father of the natural sciences and in his day was as well known as Napoleon, and traces his childhood in what was then Prussia, his education at various Universities, his training as a mining engineer, and how he progressed into the sciences. During the Age of Enlightenment, Von Humboldt's journey to South America between 1799 and 1804 with Aime Bonpland, changed the course of both their lives and during this period of exploration, they sent back to Paris and Berlin some 6,000 samples of new species, minerals and animals. En route the scientists collected a mass of detailed information 'cartographical, geological, astronomical, botanical, anthropological and linguistic,' that took a life time to decipher.