author
G. F. (George Farrer) Rodwell
b. 1843
A Victorian science writer and teacher, he turned big subjects like chemistry and volcanoes into books for general readers. His work blends clear explanation with the curiosity of a traveler eager to make the natural world feel vivid and approachable.
1 Audiobook
Etna: A History of the Mountain and of its Eruptions
by G. F. (George Farrer) Rodwell
About the author
Born in Burnham Deepdale, Suffolk, on December 23, 1843, George Farrer Rodwell was an English science teacher and writer. He taught science at Clifton College and later became science master at Marlborough College, building a career around explaining scientific ideas in a direct, readable way.
Rodwell wrote and edited several works for broad audiences, including A Dictionary of Science, The Birth of Chemistry, and Etna: A History of the Mountain and of Its Eruptions. He also contributed biographical articles to the Dictionary of National Biography, showing the same interest in making specialist knowledge useful to ordinary readers.
His books often sit at the meeting point of science, history, and travel, especially when he wrote about southern Europe and Mount Etna. He died in Palermo, Sicily, in 1905, leaving behind a body of work that reflects the Victorian appetite for discovery and popular science.