‘Invention of Nature’ author Andrea Wulf coming to Old Lyme

November 05, 2016 12:00 am • Last Updated: November 05, 2016 12:20 pm

Author Andrea Wulf standing near Antisana, a volcano in the northern Andes near Quito, Ecuador. (Photo by Julia-Niharika Sen)

Alexander von Humboldt biographer Andrea Wulf coming to Old Lyme

If the Florence Griswold Museum’s upcoming talk by Andrea Wulf seems to be casting aside cultural boundaries between the arts and sciences, the bestselling author couldn’t be happier.

“We have to measure and use our rationality to understand nature, but we also have to use our emotions and imagination to understand it,” Wulf said, reached by phone after a recent visit to the Redwood forests of California, where she found herself “stirred to her soul.”

On Nov. 12, the museum is hosting Wulf for its annual Samuel Thorne Memorial Lecture at the First Congregational Church in Old Lyme. Her 2015 biography of 18th-century naturalist, explorer and geographer Alexander von Humboldt, named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by the New York Times, The Atlantic and Kirkus Reviews, among others, brought his extraordinary life and insights to the attention of millions of readers in the English-speaking world that had all but forgotten him.

Titled “The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World,” the 473-page volume chronicles both the South American adventures and discoveries of this German scientist, well known until his death in 1859 as a genius whose writings inspired the likes of Darwin, Goethe, Símon Bolívar, Muir and Thoreau, to name a few. Though he never used the term “climate change” or “global warming,” he was the first to articulate and raise alarm about the idea that humans could profoundly alter the climate, after observing how plantations had dramatically changed the hydrology of a region in Venezuela. He also recognized that nature is organized into ecosystems, or “webs of life,” a principle that has been so accepted as the foundation of modern natural science that, as Wulf states in her book, “the man behind it has disappeared.”

What also makes his story so relevant today, Wulf believes, is that his life and work both embody an interdisciplinary approach to nature, where science is informed by the arts, and the arts by science. Tackling today’s complex environmental challenges, she believes, requires that kind of thinking.

“He doesn’t draw a line between the arts and sciences,” said Wulf.

That’s a main message of her book that Wulf hopes resonates in today’s overspecialized society, and her upcoming appearance in Old Lyme promises a receptive audience.

David Rau, director of education and outreach for the Florence Griswold Museum, said the talk came together through the result of some fortunate serendipity. Endowed by the Thorne family, the lecture series is intended to highlight some area of culture usually considered outside the scope of the museum, he said.

“It’s our opportunity to go off topic from American impressionism,” he said.

He had heard Wulf on a radio interview shortly after her book came out, then picked up the book at his local library.

“I devoured it,” he recalled. “I found it fascinating and very readable. I was kind of on a high after reading the book.”

He reached out to Wulf, who lives in London, to invite her to speak. Despite her busy schedule, she agreed, saying she has a friend who lives in Old Lyme she’s been wanting to visit.

Though she’s been “traveling like a madwoman” lately, Wulf took a few minutes last week to answer five questions:

Q. Given von Humboldt’s enormous influence and prominence in his own day in the worlds of science, politics and other disciplines, why has he been lost to history?

A. It’s a combination of things. He’s forgotten in the English-speaking world. But in Latin America he’s very, very famous, as famous as Jefferson in the United States. But he’s known there more as a revolutionary because of his relationship with Bolívar. Also, there’s not a single big discovery that’s attached to his name. He comes up with this holistic world view. He’s dabbling in so many different worlds, and comes up with the idea that nature is a web of life. It’s so much a part of the way we think of nature now, that we don’t think of the man behind it. We take it for granted. Also, after him, science became much more specialized, and science began looking down on people who were generalists. Finally, after World War I there was a very strong anti-German sentiment.

Q. What kind of response has your book generated from people working in climate change policy and science issues, and has it generated much from skeptics and deniers?

A. I’ve gotten a lot of responses from people working on climate issues and in the environmental movement. All of them see this as a positive for their cause. A lot of people think the environmental movement all started with Rachel Carson and “Silent Spring,” but this roots them in a longer history. I’ve also gotten a lot of responses from the younger generation, people under 25 involved in environmental work, which gets me so excited. What von Humboldt is really driven by is this awe of nature, and they are inspired by that. I have gotten a few weird emails from climate change skeptics and deniers, but not many. They’re not likely to read my book.

Q. Was there one moment that stands out during your research, either in poring through archives or traveling to the different locations where he did his work, that stands out as your epiphany moment, when you felt like you were connecting with who he was and his significance?

A. There were two, one in the archives and one in the outdoors. The first was when I climbed Chimborazo. It was kind of a cliché, that I had to follow in his footsteps. I climbed up to 16,400 feet. It was pretty high and exhausting. It was a beautiful day and sitting up there above the clouds, I just suddenly thought, ‘I totally get why he thought nature was a web of life.’ He had that overarching view. The other moment was in the archives in Berlin. They have hundreds of boxes full of his papers. I found this one that was little bits of paper all glued together, it becomes this multi-layered collage of thoughts. I just suddenly, viscerally understood how his mind worked. It’s in all directions. That man did not think linearly. That’s where he gets this idea of a web.

Q. If he were to come to your dinner party, what one question would you like to ask him that you were unable answer from your research?

A. I’d like to ask him the question I get asked all the time during my talks. I would ask him whether he believes in God. He never mentions God in his works. Instead he talks about the force in nature. So I’d like to ask him why he didn’t write about his views about religion. Was it because he was an atheist? Was it the times he was living in? I’d also like to ask him how much he was influenced in his ideas about nature by the native religions of the indigenous tribes (in South America).

Q. How did you become interested in von Humboldt?

A. I’m German, so I heard about him a lot as a German scientist. But my agent was born in Venezuela, and had heard a lot of the adventure stories about him, and told me I should write a book about him. It was in the back of my mind since then. When I wrote about Jefferson meeting von Humboldt for “Founding Gardeners,” I stumbled into his life and I was fascinated. He influenced Madison with his environmental ideas. The book is really about his legacy.