author
A. von Schmidt auf Altenstadt
A Dutch noblewoman and early travel writer, she left behind lively accounts of East Asia at the start of the 20th century. Her work offers a curious, firsthand glimpse of Korea, China, and Japan as seen by a European traveler of her time.
1 Audiobook
Reisherinneringen uit Korea en China De Aarde en haar Volken, 1904
by A. von Schmidt auf Altenstadt
About the author
A. von Schmidt auf Altenstadt appears in contemporary Dutch sources as Jonkvr. A. von Schmidt auf Altenstadt—a title used for an unmarried woman of the Dutch nobility. She belonged to the wider von Schmidt auf Altenstadt family, a noble line with German roots that later had a Dutch branch.
She is known today for the Dutch travel book Reisherinneringen uit Korea en China (1904), which survives through Project Gutenberg and other library records. A 1903 notice in Elsevier's Geïllustreerd Maandschrift also describes her as the author of an illustrated book about Japan, suggesting that travel writing about East Asia was a central part of her published work.
Very little biographical detail about her life has been easy to confirm from reliable online sources, so it is safest to remember her primarily through her books. What does come through clearly is her role as an observant traveler whose writings brought distant places to Dutch readers in an era when such journeys were still unusual.