Volume 1

Linnæus : (Afterwards Carl von Linné) the story of his life / adapted from the Swedish of Theodor Magnus Fries ... and brought down to the present time in the light of recent research, by Benjamin Daydon Jackson.

  • Theodor Magnus Fries
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Linnæus : (Afterwards Carl von Linné) the story of his life / adapted from the Swedish of Theodor Magnus Fries ... and brought down to the present time in the light of recent research, by Benjamin Daydon Jackson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    University records from which he gathered much; he likewise gleaned from Swedish and other sources eyery allusion to his great countryman’s career. He visited London several times, as in 1871, 1896 and 1904 when he devoted his time to the examination of the Linnean MSS. and letters, preserved in the Linnean Society’s collections. Further, he was able to make use of the life-work of Dr, J. E. E. Ahrling, and between the two men, hardly anything escaped notice. In due course these researches were incor¬ porated in his magnum of us. After 1903 he was still busily engaged in gathering fresh material; he trans¬ lated and printed unpublished MSS. and by 1907 when the bicentenary celebration of the birth of Carl von Linne was celebrated in Sweden with great enthusiasm, he was undertaking the editorship of the “ Bref och skrifvelser ” (Letters and communications of and to Linne) of which he lived to complete six volumes with illuminative notes of the contemporaries of Linne, which work is still in progress. Shortly after the issue of the “ Life ” an offer was made, I do not know by whom, to an eminent London publisher to bring out an English translation, and I was asked by Mr. George Murray, at that time Keeper of Botany at the British Museum, to inter¬ view one of the partners of the firm in question. This I did, though I could learn nothing of the firm’s intentions, but could only impress upon them my readiness to further the project to the utmost of my power. I heard nothing more of the proposition and presumed it was declined on account of the extent of the work. Since then I have been repeatedly urged to draw up an adaptation of Professor Fries’s work for English readers, but pressure of official work has hitherto hindered my compliance. Now, however, the time seems opportune to lay before the scientific and reading public an adequate account of the great naturalist. I have found myself obliged to adapt the work, for a complete translation would not only be
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