Views of Nature

Alexander von Humboldt chronicles his 1799–1804 expedition to Central and South America in this classic work of natural history. Conducted with botanist Aimé Bonpland, this research expedition influenced the great scientific surveys of the nineteenth century and provided material for Humboldt's volumes, which combined scientific rigor with aesthetic beauty and inspired essayists and artists including Emerson, Goethe, Thoreau, Poe, and Frederic Edwin Church. Views of Nature (Ansichten der Natur) was Humboldt's best-known and most influential work, and his personal favorite. The essays are innovative pieces of nature writing—Thoreau cited them as a model for his own work. Extensive endnotes contain Humboldt's prose and mature thinking on vegetation structure, its origins in climate patterns, and its implications for the arts. Written for both literary and scientific audiences, the book was translated into English, Spanish, and French in the nineteenth century and read widely in Europe and the Americas. However, Views of Nature has been unavailable in English for more than one hundred years and was largely neglected in the United States during the twentieth century. This new translation contributes to the current revival of Humboldt's contributions to the humanities and sciences.