Andre Michaux in North America - Journals and Letters, 1785-1797 (Hardcover)

Journals and letters, translated from the original French, bring Michaux's work to modern readers and scientists. Known to today's biologists primarily as the 'Michx,' at the end of more than 700 plant names, AndrE Michaux was an intrepid French naturalist. Under the directive of King Louis XVI, he was commissioned to search out and grow new, rare, and never-before-described plant species and ship them back to his homeland in order to improve French forestry, agriculture, and horticulture. He made major botanical discoveries and published them in his two landmark books, Histoire des chEnes de l'AmErique (1801), a compendium of all oak species recognized from eastern North America, and Flora Boreali-Americana (1803), the first account of all plants known in eastern North America. Straddling the fields of documentary editing, history of the early republic, history of science, botany, and American studies, AndrE Michaux in North America: Journals and Letters, 1785-1797 is the first complete English edition of Michaux's American journals. This copiously annotated translation includes important excerpts from his little-known correspondence as well as a substantial introduction situating Michaux and his work in the larger scientific context of the day. To carry out his mission, Michaux traveled from the Bahamas to Hudson Bay and west to the Mississippi River on nine separate journeys, all indicated on a finely rendered, color-coded map in this volume. His writings detail the many hardships - debilitating disease, robberies, dangerous wild animals, even shipwreck - that Michaux endured on the North American frontier and on his return home. But they also convey the soaring joys of exploration in a new world where nature still reigned supreme, a paradise of plants never before known to Western science. The thrill of discovery drove Michaux ever onward, even ultimately to his untimely death in 1802 on the remote island of Madagascar.

General

Imprint:	The University of Alabama Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	March 2020
Authors:	Andre Michaux
Editors:	Charlie Williams • Eliane M. Norman
Authors:	Eliane M. Norman
Editors:	Walter K./ Taylor
Foreword by:	James E. McClellan
Dimensions:	254 x 178 x 55mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	608
ISBN-13:	978-0-8173-2030-0
Categories:	Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > History of science Books > Earth & environment > The environment > General Books > Professional & Technical > Technology: general issues > General Books > Sport & Leisure > Natural history, country life & pets > Plant life: general > General Promotions
LSN:	0-8173-2030-X
Barcode:	9780817320300

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