Linnaeus: The Compleat Naturalist

by Wilfrid Blunt, William T. Stearn (Introduction)

The Compleat Naturalist A Life Of Linnaeus

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Science, History, Nature

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

note: This profile is for the artist and gardener. For the poet go here: Wilfrid Scarwen Blunt

Wilfrid Jasper Walter Blunt was an artist, art teacher, author and curator of the Watts Museum near Guildford.
Blunt received a scholarship to Marlborough College where he studied between 1914 and 1920.
After a year at Worcester College, Oxford, Blunt switched to the Atelier Moderne in Paris to become an artist. By the following year he was an engraving student at the Royal College of Art, London where he received an Associates degree in 1923.
Blunt joined Haileybury College, Hertfordshire, as its art instructor in 1923. He spent the year 1933 on leave training as a concert singer in Italy and Germany, but pursued singing only avocationally. Europe broadened his cultural outlook enough that returning to a provincial school was no longer rewarding. Blunt researched and published work on the architect William Wilkins, who had designed the buildings of Haileybury in 1806. The previous year, a family connection got him a position of second drawing master at Eton College.
In 1950, Blunt wrote his most acclaimed book The Art of Botanical Illustration, together with W.T. Stearn, for which he was awarded the Veitch Gold Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society. At Eton he encouraged italic handwriting, publishing the book Sweet Roman Hand on the subject in 1952. Blunt retired from Eton in 1959 and joined the Watts Gallery Museum in Compton, near Guildford, as a curator. When he retired from the Gallery in 1983 he was allowed to live in the curator's house until his death. His brothers were Christopher Evelyn Blunt, a noted numismatist, and Anthony Blunt, the eminent art historian (and spy).

source:Wilfrid Blunt

Reviews

[Sara Van Dyck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blunt’s book is thoroughly researched and with many details, including quotes from Linnaeus’s correspondence, giving the flavor of the man. It provides a compleat picture of Linnaeus– ambitious, proud, early struggling for funds, loving friend, happy father, admired professor; even doctor - critical of coffee but fond of tobacco. The book is very readable and anecdotal, as it follows Linnaeus in his travels and career, identifies various plants he discovered or named, and shows the difficulties in finding acceptance for the binomial system. Yet it leaves me with a couple of questions. I would like more explanation as to why the binomial system was so needed at the time. Also, I would like to learn more about the long-term results of these expeditions and discoveries. Did they lead to new plants being introduced, new agricultural methods, new medicines? It's lovely to see the connection across the centuries and continents, that many of the plants we know here in Oregon were described by Linnaeus.

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blunt's biography of famed naturalist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus. This chronicles events from his birth in May 1707 to his death in 1778, including his lodging at the home of Dr Killian Strobaeus in the town of Lund around 1727 taking advantage of his vast library and his 400 mile journey to Uppsala in August 1728, not forgeting his publishing of Systema Naturae in 1735.

[Alfred Keep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Science will always be fascinating reading. Linnaeus sounds like a very interesting person.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography.

[Mira · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good and accessible bio of Linnaeus. My only criticism is I wish there was a little more on his binomial system of classification rather than the short appendix in the back, but nonetheless, I enjoyed reading about his journey to Lappland, his family life and the development of his career.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars if you are fascinated by biology. The work of Linnaeus is central to biology. This book provides many insights into the man and his era. 3 stars if you are just looking for an interesting biography.

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a scientific biography this was really easy to read and interesting. Not a lot of science jargon, although perhaps a degree of assumed knowledge.

[Lissa Notreallywolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't thrilled, this was a coffee table biography

[R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found it fascinating, the connections of plant names that hold true today to the connections in Carl Linneaus life.

[? · Rating 5 out of 5]

Princeps Botanicorum

[Douglas]

I read this book years ago and was trying to reread it but it is a library book and I have a hard time reading non fiction straight through. I usually read non fiction in bites over months so i am letting this book go as I just can't keep renewing it over and over