On the Natural History of Nature Writing: Linnaeus’ Followers

The classical naturalist Carl Linnaeus is prominent for his “binominal nomenclature,” which he developed in the Systema Naturae (1st edition 1735, 10th edition 1758). However, while in the Norton Book of Nature Writing (1990) he is mentioned as a pioneer and “father” of nature writers, Linnaeus, with his Iter Lapponicum 1732, is in fact one of the early representatives of this genre. The essay argues that there is not only a deep connection between natural history and nature writing but also a vivid tradition of naturalists practicing nature writing (defined as an “aesthetically formed” personal nature essay). In this sense, Linnaeus’s travelogue is a precursor to Jean-Henri Fabre’s Souvenirs entomologiques—Etudes sur l’instinct et les moeurs des insectes (1879–1907), Ernst Jünger’s Subtile Jagden (1967), and Horst Stern’s Leben am seidenen Faden (1981).