author
Alfred Hagen
A French physician and traveler, he turned his medical training into firsthand accounts of distant places. His writing opens a window onto Melanesia and other journeys at the end of the 19th century.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Maxey-sur-Vaise, France, on January 10, 1860, Alfred Hagen was a physician who later became known for his travel writing. French reference sources identify him as a colonial doctor, and records from the Bibliothèque nationale de France show that he completed a medical thesis in 1884 on diabetic coma.
Hagen is especially remembered for visiting the islands of Melanesia in the late 19th century. His work reflects the curiosity of a doctor-observer: he wrote about places he saw for himself, including the New Hebrides and Solomon Islands, and Wikisource also lists a later piece on a journey in Korea from 1904.
He died in Nice on May 21, 1941. Although not widely known today, his books remain of interest as travel narratives from a period when European readers were eager for reports from the Pacific and East Asia.