historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
and
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...
who has written books, newspaper articles and book reviews.
Biography
Wulf was born in
New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, a child of German developmental aid workers, and spent the first five years of her life there then grew up in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
. She studied first at the University of Lüneburg, and then design history at The Royal College of Art,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
Wulf is a
public speaker
Public speaking, also called oratory or oration, has traditionally meant the act of speaking face to face to a live audience. Today it includes any form of speaking (formally and informally) to an audience, including pre-recorded speech deliver ...
, delivering lectures in the UK and USA. She was the guest speaker at the
Kitt Peak National Observatory
The Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a United States astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation, west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona. With more than ...
.
Her book ''The Brother Gardeners'' was long-listed for the
Samuel Johnson Prize
The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its ...
Ness Award The Ness Award is an annual award of the Royal Geographical Society to travellers, particularly those who have successfully popularised Geography and the wider understanding of our world and its environments. It was established in 1953 and named aft ...
for her book ''
The Invention of Nature
''The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World'' is a nonfiction book released in 2015, by the historian Andrea Wulf about the Prussian naturalist, explorer and geographer Alexander von Humboldt. The book follows Humboldt from his ...
.''
''Chasing Venus: the Race to Measure the Heavens''
''Chasing Venus: the Race to Measure the Heavens'' (2012) is a non-fiction book about expeditions of scientists who set off around the world in 1761 and 1769 to collect data relating to the
transit of Venus
frameless, upright=0.5
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a tr ...
and thereby to measure and understand better the universe. The narrative style provides glimpses into the personalities of those involved, their aims and obsessions, their failures and discoveries, and provides the historic context of the period in the 18th century when modern-day scientifically accurate mapping and international scientific collaboration began. Dramatis personae include Joseph Banks, Catherine the Great, Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche, James Cook,
Joseph-Nicolas Delisle
Joseph-Nicolas Delisle (; 4 April 1688 – 11 September 1768) was a French astronomer and cartographer.
Life
Joseph was born in Paris, one of the 11 sons of Claude Delisle (1644–1720). Like many of his brothers, among them Guillaume Delisle ...
,
Jeremiah Dixon
Jeremiah Dixon FRS (27 July 1733 – 22 January 1779) was an English surveyor and astronomer who is best known for his work with Charles Mason, from 1763 to 1767, in determining what was later called the Mason–Dixon line.
Early life and ...
,
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
,
Edmond Halley
Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720.
From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, H ...
,
Maximilian Hell
Maximilian Hell ( hu, Hell Miksa) (born Rudolf Maximilian Höll; May 15, 1720 – April 14, 1792) was an astronomer and an ordained Jesuit priest from the Kingdom of Hungary.
Biography
Born as Rudolf Maximilian Höll in Selmecbánya, Hont Co ...
,
Guillaume Le Gentil
Guillaume Joseph Hyacinthe Jean-Baptiste Le Gentil de la Galaisière (, 12 September 1725 – 22 October 1792) was a French astronomer who discovered several nebulae and was appointed to the Royal Academy of Sciences. He made unsuccessful attemp ...
Nevil Maskelyne
Nevil Maskelyne (; 6 October 1732 – 9 February 1811) was the fifth British Astronomer Royal. He held the office from 1765 to 1811. He was the first person to scientifically measure the mass of the planet Earth. He created the ''British Nau ...
Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin
Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin ( Sunne parish, Jämtlands län 11 September 1717 ( OS) – Stockholm 13 December 1783), Swedish astronomer and demographer.
Wargentin was the son of the vicar of Sunne Wilhelm Wargentin (1670–1735) and his spouse Ch ...
,
John Winthrop
John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led t ...
, and members of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across ...
.
''The Invention of Nature''
''The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World'' (2015) is a nonfiction book about the Prussian naturalist, explorer and geographer
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, ...
. Wulf makes the case that Humboldt synthesized knowledge from many different fields to form a vision of nature as one interconnected system, that would go on to influence scientists, activists and the public.
Books
* ''This Other Eden: Seven Great Gardens and 300 Years of English History'' Little, Brown, 2005,
* ''The Brother Gardeners: A Generation of Gentlemen Naturalists and the Birth of an Obsession'' Vintage Books, 2008,
* ''Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation'' Knopf Doubleday, 2012,
* ''Chasing Venus: the Race to Measure the Heavens'' (2012)
* '' The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World'', Knopf, 2015,
* ''The Adventures of Alexander Von Humboldt'', Pantheon, 2019 (co-authored with Lillian Melcher - illustrator)
* ''Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self'', Knopf, 2022,