The John Carter Brown Library & The Providence Athenæum Present

The Invention of NatureA talk by award-winning author

Andrea WulfMonday, May 9, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. MacMillan Reading Room | The John Carter Brown Library | Reception to follow

The John Carter Brown Library corner of George & Brown Streets Providence, RI jcbl.org | jcb-events@brown.edu |401-863-2725

Perceiving nature as an interconnected global force, Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) discovered similarities between climate zones across the world and predicted human-induced climate change. He turned scientific observation into poetic narrative, and his writings inspired naturalists and poets such as Darwin, Wordsworth and Goethe but also politicians such as Jefferson. Wulf also argues that it was Humboldt’s influence that led John Muir to his ideas of preservation and that shaped Thoreau’s Walden. In this talk, based on her New York Times best-seller novel, The Invention of Nature. Alexander von Humboldt’s New World, historian Andrea Wulf traces Humboldt’s influences through the great minds he inspired in revolution, evolution, ecology, conservation, art and literature.