Green Series · Volume 1
Robert Baden-Powell
1857–1941
A handbook that set off a world movement.
Officer, scout, draughtsman, and storyteller: in 1908 Baden-Powell wrote a book of instruction for boys — and unintentionally founded one of the largest youth movements in the world.
English-language editions
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Life & period
Born in London in 1857, Baden-Powell served as a British army officer in India and southern Africa. The siege of Mafeking in 1899–1900 made him famous across the Empire.
In 1907 he tested his idea at a camp on Brownsea Island; the book that set off the movement followed in 1908. He died in Nyeri, Kenya, in 1941.
The form
Scouting for Boys is not a treatise but a handbook: campfire yarns, games, tests, maxims, and drawings alternate in short, practical units.
The tone speaks directly to young readers — vivid, demanding, often dryly funny. A translation has to hold exactly that register.
Reach and context
Within a few years Scout troops had formed on every continent; the book ranks among the most widely circulated books for young readers of the twentieth century.
It is at the same time a document of the British Empire and carries its worldview plainly. Aeternus preserves the historical wording and makes that context visible rather than smoothing it away.