An exceptionally well researched biography about "The Lost Hero of Science", Alexander von Humboldt. Andrea Wulf describes Humboldt's unusual and exploratory life by piecing together his letters to colleagues and friends, and his books, into a narrative from his birth in the late 17th Century to his final days in Berlin in the mid-18th. Humboldt was a polymath, as comfortable with art and philosophy as he was with scientific measurements, and his passion for nature, and for people, resounds today, as Wulf highlights, even if he is often forgotten.

Wulf focuses the narrative not only on Humboldt's achievements, but on how he influnced other scientists, artists, economists, philosophers and politicians. His research into nature, the climate, the 'net' of life, and people was only matched by his generosity and social engagement. In his youth he met and was inspired by the poet Goethe. He travelled with scientists and partied with writers and artists. He held court with the Prussian King, and met Thomas Jefferson in the US. He shared his knowledge with as many as he could, eventually influencing Charled Darwin, Ernst Haeckel, George Perkins Marsh, Frederic Edwin Church and Henry David Thoreau among many others, either directly (by meeting and working with them) or indirectly (through their work).

The depth of Wulf's research is astounding, and few writers have committed so much to a single subject, in an ironic contradiction to he subject's sprawling array of specialisms. Unfortunately, her writing is often filled with superlatives, mixed metaphors or occasional assumptions, and as a result the writing is sometimes frustrating. Nevertheless, the breadth of information, taken as a guiding point to Humboldt and 19th Century science/philosophy, makes this one of the best biographies I have read and an easy one to recommend.