Vera M. Kutzinski is the Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of English, professor of comparative literature, and director of the Alexander von Humboldt in English project at Vanderbilt University. Ottmar Ette is chair of romance literature at the University of Potsdam, Germany, and the author of many books on von Humboldt.
"Appearing just over two hundred years after the original
publication of Vues des Cordilleres in 1810, this magnificent new
edition is the first ever complete English translation of the
original French text, integrating all sixty-nine plates of the
'picturesque atlas' with von Humboldt's original commentary. J.
Ryan Poynter's cautiously modernized translation preserves the
idiosyncrasies of von Humboldt's distinctive French style, alert to
its unique blending of aesthetic and scientific perceptions of the
'New World.' The edition underlies Humboldt's experimental,
'rhizomatic' project in exploring the relationship between American
nature and culture, establishing a new planetary consciousness for
the Romantic age. Perhaps most strikingly for the modern reader,
his radical understanding of indigenous America as a world
civilization lives and breathes again in our postcolonial era."
--Nigel Leask, University of Glasgow
"Beautifully translated, meticulously assembled, and densely
annotated, this volume reconfirms von Humboldt's status as Europe's
first naturalist of the Americas."--Brian S. Bauer, University of
Illinois at Chicago
"Von Humboldt is a towering Atlantic world figure. Here we can
gauge the full range of his interests: from observations on ancient
Mayan ruins and comparative calendric systems to prehistoric
building techniques and breathtaking landscapes. Kutzinski and Ette
offer expert appreciation of von Humboldt's genial
cosmopolitanism." --William Boelhower, Louisiana State University
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