The World of George Perkins Marsh, published in observance of the 100th anniversary of his death in 1882, graphically portrays the life and times of this extraordinarily versatile public servant, ecologist and diplomat, born in Woodstock, Vermont.

A distinguished linguist, country lawyer, frustrated business man and farmer, designer, and Congressman, Marsh earned international renown for his pioneering environmental study, Man and Nature, first published in 1864, and still widely acknowledged--"the beginning of land wisdom in this country", as former Secretary of the Interior Udall commented.

In the United States House of Representatives, in which he served two terms after 1844, Marsh was instrumental in securing passage of the legislation which created The Smithsonian Institution, and helped guide its early growth.

Marsh was appointed Minister to Turkey by President Taylor, and later served as Minister to the newly-united Kingdom of Italy for the last twenty-one years of his life, a tour of duty unprecedented in the annals of American diplomatic history. *

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*from the book jacket