This study is the first to essay an appreciation and analysis of the scientist Alexander von Humboldt as a writer. Its focus is literary, and it inquires into the historical preconditions, contexts, and impacts of Humboldt’s successful writing career. Humboldt’s extended and extensive activities as a writer illuminate important aspects of scientific modernization and specialization, the increasingly problematic concept of nature, and the specific history of German education in the 19^th century.