Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was a Prussian polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. Stephen T. Jackson is professor emeritus of botany and ecology at the University of Wyoming and the editor of Humboldt's Essay on the Geography of Plants and Views of Nature, both also published by the University of Chicago Press. Philip Holt is professor emeritus in Latin, Greek, and classics at the University of Wyoming.