author
Johann Jakob von Tschudi
1818–1889
A Swiss explorer, naturalist, and diplomat, he turned years of travel in South America into vivid writing on Peru’s wildlife, landscapes, and cultures. His work helped introduce 19th-century European readers to the Andes through the eyes of a careful observer.
1 Audiobook
Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests
by Johann Jakob von Tschudi
About the author
Born in Glarus, Switzerland, in 1818, he studied natural sciences and medicine in Neuchâtel, Leiden, and Paris before setting out for South America. He spent several years in Peru and other parts of the Andes, collecting specimens and recording what he saw in the region’s natural history, geography, and everyday life.
His books grew out of that firsthand experience. Alongside travel writing, he published scientific work on South American fauna and wrote about language and culture, especially in Peru. Later in life, he also served as a Swiss diplomat, bringing together scholarship, travel, and public service in an unusually wide-ranging career.
He died in 1889 in Austria. Today he is remembered both as a field naturalist and as a writer whose accounts preserve a detailed 19th-century view of South America.