SOMERVILLE, Mary.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Physical Geography. First edition of the first textbook of physical geography in English. Her third work and one of her most successful, it "offers perhaps the clearest view we get of Somerville in her role as organic intellectual and as possessor of both scientific and moral authority" (Neeley, p. 159).Somerville was awarded the Victoria Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for Physical Geography, which went through six editions in her lifetime. It was informed by the recent advancements of geologists, including Charles Lyell, Roderick Murchison, Richard Owen, Georges Cuvier, and Henry De La Beche, several of whom were Somerville's friends. Physical Geography was also indebted to Alexander Humboldt, whose Cosmos (1845-1862) nearly led to Somerville abandoning the project. Instead, she credited him, describing herself as "'following the noble example of Baron Humboldt, the patriarch of physical geography' and taking 'a more extended view of the subject than the earth and its animal and vegetable inhabitants'... Because it included human and other living beings, Physical Geography took Somerville into new and interesting territory" (Neeley, p. 133).

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