
George Forster with biographer Andrea Wulf
George Forster is the most interesting 18th century explorer that I had never heard of. He traveled the South Pacific on Captain James Cook’s second voyage at age seventeen, sailing through icy waters tantalizingly close to undiscovered Antarctica. The common roots of those languages and cultures led him to develop a theory of Polynesian migration two centuries before it became the scientific consensus. The prevailing European notion at the time was also one of racial superiority, but Forster saw the peoples he met as equals and believed they had something of value to teach him. The book he wrote about the journey made him a coveted dinner guest all over Europe. He was friends with Goethe, Benjamin Franklin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and he became a mentor to Alexander von Humboldt. But Forster’s later life was not a happy one, and his work was largely forgotten until today’s guest rescued him from obscurity. Andrea Wulf is the author of The Traveller: The Revolutionary Life of George Forster. We spoke about Forster’s remarkable Pacific journey, why his ideas were so far ahead of their time, and his unfortunate end. Personal Landscapes relies on the support of listeners like you to keep going. Please consider joining my Member's Club on Substack, where you'll find show notes for each episode, book reviews, reading-related videos, and more. You’ll be supporting an independent ad-free podcast that publishes carefully curated conversations like this one, backed by decades of reading. Go to https://www.personallandscapespodcast.com/p/start-here Follow my travels — and buy my books — on https://ryanmurdock.com/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.personallandscapespodcast.com/subscribe


















