BRUN, broon, or BRUNN, Malte-Conrad (generally known as MALTE-BRUN), Danish geographer and politician: b. Thisted, Jutland, 12 Aug. 1775 d. 14 Dec. 1826. While yet very young he produced some poems which gave great promise of his rising to eminence as a poet, though his father had destined him for the Church. About this time the French Revolution called forth a host of ardent champions of the cause of progress throughout Europe, and the young poet embraced it with enthusiasm. He abandoned the Church for the bar and subse quently became editor successively of two jour nals, in which his advocacy of Liberal princi ples provoked a state prosecution that compelled him to take refuge in the Swedish island of Hven, once the residence of Tycho Brahe. Not long after, his admiration of Napoleon Bona parte, then rapidly advancing to the head of affairs, prompted him to take up his abode in France ; but the elevation of his idol to the post of consul for life opened Brun's eyes to his ambitious designs, and for the time he with drew from the pursuit of politics. He now directed his attention to the science of geogra phy. In 1803 he published, along with Men telle and Herbin, the commencement of (Geog raphie, mathematique, physique, et politique de toutes les parties du monde,> a work which was completed in 16 volumes in 1807 and in the composition of which Brun's share amounted to about a third. Before the completion of
this work his reputation as a writer had been firmly established, and in 1806 he received an appointment on the staff of the Journal des Debars, for which he continued to write arti cles on foreign politics until his death. In 1808 appeared his (Tableau de la Pologne,> and the same year he joined M. Eyries in starting the •(Annales des Voyages, de la geographic, et de l'histoire,' which proved the introduction into France of regular periodical geographical liter ature. In 1810 was published the first volume of his Precis de la geographic universellee completed in eight volumes in 1829 and reis sued. in 12 volumes in 1831. During the Hun dred Days, Brun adhered to the legitimist cause and published an (Apologie de Louis XVIII.> Toward the end of 1821 he lent powerful as sistance in establishing the Societe de Geogra phie. Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author of various geographical and political treatises too numerous to particularize. His son, Victor Adolphe, was also a noted student and professor of geography.