Georg Forster

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"Georg Forster (1754-94) was in many ways self-taught and rarely had two cents to rub together, but he became one of the most dynamic figures of the Enlightenment: a brilliant writer, naturalist, explorer, illustrator, and translator--and a revolutionary. Granted the extraordinary opportunity to sail around the world as part of Captain James Cook's fabled crew, Forster touched icebergs, walked the beaches of Tahiti, visited far-flung nations, lived with purported cannibals, and crossed oceans and the equator. He recounted the journey in his 1777 book A Voyage Round the World, a work of travel and science that not only established Forster as one of the most accomplished styllists of the time--and led some to credit him as the inventor of the literary travel narrative--but also influenced other German trailblazers of scientific and literary writing, most notably Alexander von Humboldt. A superb essayist, Forster made lasting contributions to our scientific--especially botanical and ornithological--knowledge of the South Seas." -- Dust jacket