Johannes Baptista von Albertini

Johannes Baptista von Albertini (17 February 1769 – 6 December 1831) was a German botanist and clergyman of the Moravian Church. He was born in the town of Neuwied.

He studied theology in Niesky and at the seminary in Barby. During this period he became a friend of Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who later became a renowned theologian. In 1796 Albertini became a lecturer at the seminary in Niesky, and in 1804 was a minister in Niesky. In 1814 he was elected bishop, and in 1824 was chairman of the Unitätsältestenkonferenz, the denomination's executive board, in Berthelsdorf. He was a gifted speaker and a highly influential minister, and in 1805 a compilation of his sermons was published as "30 Predigten für Freunde und Mitglieder der Brüdergemeine" (Thirty Sermons for Friends and Members of the Moravian Brethren's Church).

In the field of mycology he was co-author with Lewis David de Schweinitz (1780–1834) of a comprehensive work on Upper Lusatian fungi titled "Conspectus Fungorum in Lusatiae superioris agro Niskiensi crescentium e methodo Persooniana". This publication described 1130 species, of which 127 were considered to be new species.

The Road

The Road is a 2006 novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic tale of a journey of a father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that has destroyed most of civilization and, in the intervening years, almost all life on Earth. The novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006.

The book was adapted to a film by the same name in 2009, directed by John Hillcoat.

Plot summary

An unnamed father and his young son journey across a grim post-apocalyptic landscape, some years after an unspecified disaster has caused another extinction event, destroying civilization and most life on Earth. The land is filled with ash and devoid of living animals and vegetation. Many of the remaining human survivors have resorted to cannibalism, scavenging the detritus of city and country alike for flesh. The boy's mother, pregnant with him at the time of the disaster, gave up hope and committed suicide some time before the story began, despite the father's pleas. Much of the book is written in the third person, with references to "the father" and "the son" or to "the man" and "the boy".