Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel, based on Hellwald's “Die Erde und ihre völker”

Abstract

HELLWALD'S “Die Erde und ihre Volker”is well known in Germany, and has achieved a great popularity. We doubt, however, if a simple translation of Helhvald's work would have been either fair or wise; for though it is written more brilliantly than German works usually are, and although Hellwald himself is a competent geographer, it has several drawbacks which we should have regarded as serious defects had they been permitted to stand in this English edition. For one thing, Hellwald is a violent Anglophobist, and he takes every opportunity of depreciating English travellers or ignoring them altogether. We therefore think it wise in the publisher of the English edition to take the German work simply as a basis on which to found an English work that shall fairly represent the present state of geographical knowledge. The method adopted by the publisher appears to us well adapted to attain the end in view. He has succeeded in obtaining the services of geographers having a special knowledge of the various divisions of the earth of which the several sections of the work treat. These editors, taking the translation of Hellwald as their raw material, go over it, correcting and extending as far as they deem necessary in order to produce a work which comes up to their standard. Thus Mr. Keith Johnston has dealt with Africa, and Mr. Bates with Central and South America; of the future volumes, Europe will be edited by Prof. Ramsay, North America by Dr. Hayden, the chief of the U. S. Geological Survey, Asia by Col. Yule, and Australasia by Mr. A. R. Wallace. It must be admitted that no more competent men could be found for the parts allotted to them, and judging from the two volumes before us, the “Compendium of Geography and Travel”ought to take its place as a standard authority on geographical knowledge and geographical exploration.

Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel, based on Hellwald's “Die Erde und ihre völker”.

Africa: Edited and extended by Keith Johnston. Central and South America: Edited and extended by H. W. Bates. With Ethnological Appendices by A. H. Keane, B.A. Maps and Illustrations. (London: Stanford, 1878.)