Linnaeus

First published in 1923, this biography of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707–78) is an English translation and adaptation from a Swedish work published twenty years previously. Its editor and translator, a British botanist and general secretary of the Linnean Society, contributes his own additional material in the appendices.

This biography of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707–78) was originally published in 1903 by another Swedish botanist, Theodor Magnus Fries (1832–1913). This English version, published in 1923, was translated and edited by British botanist Benjamin Daydon Jackson (1846–1927). Jackson is best known for founding (with J. D. Hooker) the Index Kewensis, the register of all botanical names of seed plants; he also acted as Secretary of the Linnean Society for twenty-two years, becoming its General Secretary in 1902. This biography covers the early life of Linnaeus (including some family history), his student years at Uppsala, his travels, his years as a teacher, notes on his personality and his relationship with the wider scientific community. Jackson provides further information in the appendices, enhancing Fries' work with Linnaeus' genealogy, a list of his pupils, his private notes on 'Divine Punishment' and a brief history of Sweden during Linnaeus' lifetime.