| Adelbert Von Chamisso |
Article Index for Adelbert |
Website Links For Adelbert Von |
Information AboutAdelbert Von Chamisso |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ADELBERT VON CHAMISSO | |
| german botanists | |
| german nobility | |
| german poets | |
| algologists | |
| bryologists | |
| pteridologists | |
| 1781 births | |
| 1838 deaths | |
|
Adelbert von Chamisso ( January 30 1781 – August 21 1838 ), was a German Poet and Botanist . He was born ''Louis Charles Adélaïde de Chamissot'' at the '' Château '' of Boncourt in Champagne, France , the ancestral seat of his family. Driven out by the French Revolution , his parents settled in Berlin , where in 1796 young Chamisso obtained the post of page-in-waiting to the queen, and in 1798 entered a Prussia n infantry regiment as ensign. His family were shortly afterwards permitted to return to France; he remained in Germany and continued his military career. He had little education, but sought distraction from the dull routine of the Prussia n military service in assiduous study. In collaboration with Varnhagen Von Ense , he founded ( 1803 ) the ''Berliner Musenalmanach'', in which his first verses appeared. The enterprise was a failure, and, interrupted by the war, it came to an end in 1806 . It brought him, however, to the notice of many of the literary celebrities of the day and established his reputation as a rising poet. He had become lieutenant in 1801 , and in 1805 accompanied his regiment to Hameln , where he shared in the humiliation of its treasonable capitulation in the following year. Placed on parole, he went to France, but both his parents were dead; returning to Berlin in the autumn of 1807 , he obtained his release from the service early the following year. Homeless and without a profession, disillusioned and despondent, he lived in Berlin until 1810 , when, through the services of an old friend of the family, he was offered a professorship at the ''lycée'' at Napoléonville in the Vendée . He set out to take up the post, but drawn into the charmed circle of Madame De Staël , followed her in her exile to Coppet in Switzerland , where, devoting himself to Botanical Research , he remained nearly two years. In 1812 he returned to Berlin, where he continued his scientific studies. In the summer of the eventful year, 1813 , he wrote the prose narrative '' Peter Schlemihl '', the man who sold his Shadow . This, the most famous of all his works, has been translated into most European languages ( English by William Howitt ). It was written partly to divert his own thoughts and partly to amuse the children of his friend Ferdinand Hitzig . In 1815 , Chamisso was appointed botanist to the Russia n ship '' Rurik '', which Otto Von Kotzebue (son of August Von Kotzebue ) commanded on a scientific voyage round the world. His Diary of the expedition (''Tagebuch'', 1821 ) is a fascinating account of the expedition to the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea . During this trip Chamisso described a number of new species found in what is now the San Francisco Bay Area. several of these, including the California Poppy , ''Eschscholzia californica'', were named after his friend Johann Friedrich Von Eschscholtz , the Rurik's entomologist. In return, Eschscholtz named a variety of plants, including the genus '' Camissonia '', after Chamisso. On his return in 1818 he was made custodian of the botanical gardens in Berlin, and was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1820 he married. Chamisso's travels and scientific researches restrained for a while the full development of his poetical talent, and it was not until his forty-eighth year that he turned back to literature. In 1829 , in collaboration with Gustav Schwab , and from 1832 in conjunction with Franz Von Gaudy , he brought out the ''Deutsche Musenalmanach'', in which his later poems were mainly published. Chamisso will be remembered for his work as a botanist; his most important work, done in conjunction with Diederich Franz Leonhard Von Schlechtendal , was the description of many of the most important Tree s of Mexico in 1830 - 1831 . Also, his ''Bemerkungen und Ansichten'', published in an incomplete form in von Kotzebue's ''Entdeckungsreise'' (Weimar, 1821) and more completely in Chamisso's ''Gesammelte Werke'' ( 1836 ), and the botanical work, ''Übersicht der nutzbarsten und schädlichsten Gewächse in Norddeutschland'' ( 1829 ) are esteemed for their careful treatment of their subjects. As a poet Chamisso's reputation stands high, '' Frauenliebe Und -leben '' ( 1830 ), a cycle of lyrical poems, which was set to music by Robert Schumann , being particularly famous. Also noteworthy are ''Schloss Boncourt'' and ''Salas y Gomez''. In estimating his success as a writer, it should be remembered that he was cut off from his native language. He often deals with gloomy or repulsive subjects; and even in his lighter and gayer productions there is an undertone of sadness or of Satire . In the lyrical expression of the domestic emotions he displays a fine felicity, and he knew how to treat with true feeling a tale of love or vengeance. ''Die Löwenbraut'' may be taken as a sample of his weird and powerful simplicity; and ''Vergeltung'' is remarkable for a pitiless precision of treatment. The first collected edition of Chamisso's works was edited by J.E. Hitzig and published in six volumes in 1836 . EXTERNAL LINKS REFERENCES |
|
|