ABSTRACT
Patrick Geddes exerted a profound and decisive influence on Lewis Mumford’s thought and writing. Beginning in 1915, Geddes’ writings on the city, his vitalistic philosophy, and his role as a “professor of things in general” were crucial factors in shaping Mumford’s interests and purposes at the outset of his literary career. Although he was separated from the peripatetic Scotsman by oceans and continents and met him on only two occasions, Mumford repeatedly acknowledged Geddes as the mentor of his youth and as his most important teacher. In 1930, the cumulative effect of Geddes’ teachings and example ignited in Mumford what he termed an “explosion of energy” that propelled his signal achievement in American letters, and Geddes continued to be a vital influence throughout his long and voluminous career. The spirit of the man Mumford addressed as “master” permeates his work – from his first book, The Story of Utopias (1922), to his last, Sketches from Life (1982).
