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.