Georg Forster

German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist, and revolutionary (1754-1794)

  • Fame58.4
  • Momentum25.0
  • Wikipedia10.7K
Source-basedBreakout
Lived 1754–1794, aged 40
WritersWriter / Author
  • Wikipedia
    43 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1754–1794
    Aged 40
  • Awards
    1
    recognised work
Summary
Updated 2026-06-13

He sailed with Cook at seventeen, wrote one of the clearest accounts of what Europeans found in the Pacific, and got elected to the Royal Society before he could legally drink in most countries today. Then he threw it all in with the French Revolution and died in exile at thirty-nine.

Biography

About

Georg Forster joined his father on James Cook's second Pacific voyage as a teenager; his book A Voyage Round the World became a founding text of scientific travel writing and earned him a Royal Society seat at twenty-two. He spent the next decade teaching natural history in Kassel and Vilnius, then landed as head librarian at the University of Mainz in 1788, translating Cook's diaries and writing essays that would shape Alexander von Humboldt's thinking. When French forces took Mainz in 1792, Forster helped establish the Mainz Republic, Germany's first attempt at republican government. He went…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Georg Forster

Georg Forster
said
The degree of pleasure which may result from the perusal of a work, depends not only upon the variety of the subject, but likewise upon the purity and graces of style.
Preface
Georg Forster
said
[...] each vulgar opinion, proved to be erroneous, is an approximation to truth [...].
Book I, ch. II, The Passage from Madeira to the Cape Verd Islands, and from thence to the Cape of Good Hope.
Georg Forster
said
It is the natural fault of young people to think too well of mankind [...].
Book I, ch. II, The Passage from Madeira to the Cape Verd Islands, and from thence to the Cape of Good Hope.
Georg Forster
said
Born to live our stated time on this globe, every one who puts a premature period to our existence here, offends the laws of the Creator.
Book III, ch. IV, Third and last stay at Queen Charlotte's Sound, in New Zeeland.
Where to find them

Platforms

By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Rising
58.4
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum25.0
Historical24.4
Now attention100.0
Source confidence65.0
Completeness65.0
Global rank
Country rank
Category rank
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence