Research Article Charles Cotton: New Zealand’s most influential geomorphologist Michael Crozier and Rebecca Priestley Institute of Geography, School of Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand Abstract: Charles Cotton was New Zealand’s foremost advocate for geomorphology. His publications were recognised nationally and internationally, informing educational curricula and captivating the wider public. His approach to landform study was strongly influenced by The Geographical Cycle espoused by William Morris Davis of Harvard University. For the first half of the 20th century, The Cycle constituted the dominant paradigm of landform studies, but it was ultimately severely criticised and abandoned as unrealistic. While Cotton lost credence among some academics for his reluctance to abandon The Cycle, his elegantly illustrated written work made a lasting contribution to many branches of earth science. Key words: Charles Cotton, geomorphology, the geographical cycle, Victoria Univer- sity of Wellington, William Morris Davis. In 1968, as recipient of a student leader travel award, I (Michael Crozier) had the opportunity to attend Cornell University, in the USA, and sit in on a graduate geomorphology course run by Professor Arthur Bloom. The textbook for the course was Geomorphology: An Introduc- tion to the Study of Landforms, by C.A. Cotton (seventh edition, revised 1958 and reprinted in 1960). As a young PhD student studying at the University of Otago at the time, I was surprised (and somewhat unsettled) on two counts; first, that a New Zealand author’s work should be studied at such a prestigious overseas univer- sity and second, that anyone still bothered with this book, because by this time New Zealand universities had largely relegated Cotton’s work to the arena of historical interest only. Exactly 40 years later, I found myself resolutely defending Cotton’s work before the Environ- ment Court in an appeal on Meridian’s Project West Wind, a wind farm planned for Cotton’s uplifted peneplain (the K surface) at Makara, west of Wellington City. His work, I had discov- ered with time, was not as obsolete as I had been led to believe by my teachers, even after more than half a century. This paper will explore Cotton’s widespread academic influ- ence, his fall from mainstream acceptance and his academic and popular legacy. Cotton’s career Charles Andrew Cotton (see Fig. 1) was born in Dunedin in 1885, but he spent much of his childhood travelling, to which his daughter attributes his shyness. His father was captain of the clipper barquentine Frank Guy, and the Cotton family and small crew roamed the world seeking cargo. Cotton’s mother taught him aboard ship, but when he was 11 years old, Note about authors: Michael Crozier is Emeritus Professor of Geomorphology at Victoria University of Wellington and President of the International Association of Geomorphologists; Rebecca Priestley, a former student of Michael Crozier, is a science historian specialising in New Zealand science history. E-mail: michael.crozier@vuw.ac.nz New Zealand Geographer (2011) 67, 79–89 © 2011 The Authors New Zealand Geographer © 2011 The New Zealand Geographical Society doi: 10.1111/j.1745-7939.2011.01201.x