Élisée Reclus | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1830-03-15)15 March 1830 Sainte-Foy-la-Grande,Gironde, France |
| Died | 4 July 1905(1905-07-04) (aged 75) Torhout, Belgium |
| Alma mater | University of Berlin |
| Occupation(s) | Geographer, anarchist revolutionary, writer |
| Notable work | La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes |
| Movement |  Anarchism |
| Parent(s) | Jacques Reclus, Marguerite Zéline Trigant |
| Relatives | |
| Family | Reclus family |
Jacques Élisée Reclus (French:[ʁəkly]; 15 March 1830 – 4 July 1905) was a Frenchgeographer, writer andanarchist. He produced his 19-volume masterwork,La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes (Universal Geography), over a period of nearly 20 years (1875–1894). In 1892 he was awarded the Gold Medal of theParis Geographical Society for this work, despite having been banished from France because of his political activism.
Reclus was born atSainte-Foy-la-Grande (Gironde) on March 15, 1830.[1] TheReclus family were part of theProtestant minority in France.[2] His father,Jacques Reclus, was a Protestant pastor in Montcaret and taught at Sainte-Foy's Protestant college; Reclus' godfather was the Protestant pastor Jacques Drillholle.[3] Reclus' mother, Marguerite Zéline Trigant, was a teacher and founded a school at Orthez.[4] Reclus spent his early years at the home of his maternal grandparents in Laroche, until he rejoined his family in 1838 at Castétarbe.[5]
Reclus was the second son in a family of fourteen children. His brothers wereOnésime,Élie,Paul, andArmand - who went on to bemen of letters, politicians or members of the learned professions.[6]
Reclus began his education inRhenish Prussia, and continued higher studies at the Protestant college ofMontauban, after he had studied for a baccalaureate at Sainte-Foy.[7] While studying at Sainte-Foy, Reclus and his brother lived with their aunt.[8] Reclus felt dissatisfied with his studies at Montauban, moving four kilometers away to study independently in a house with his brothers and their friendÉdouard Grimard.[9] In 1849, without authorisation to take leave from the school, Élisée, Élie and Edouard journeyed on foot from Montauban to the Mediterranean Sea; shortly after this episode, the Reclus brothers were expelled from the school, in part because of their political views.[10]
Reclus moved to Berlin in 1851 and completed his studies at theUniversity of Berlin, where he followed a long course of geography underCarl Ritter and also studied political economy and the history of diseases.[6][11]
Withdrawing from France due to the political events of December 1851, he spent the next six years (1852–1857) traveling and working inGreat Britain, theUnited States,Central America, andColombia.[6] Arriving inLouisiana in 1853, Reclus worked for about two and a half years as a tutor to the children of cousin Septime and Félicité Fortier at their plantation Félicité, located about 80 kilometres (50 miles) upriver fromNew Orleans. He recounted his passage through theMississippi River Delta and impressions of antebellum New Orleans and the state inFragment d'un voyage à la Nouvelle-Orléans, published in 1855.[12]
On 11 March 1858, he was initiated in the regularScottish RiteMasonic LodgeLes Émules d'Hiram, affiliated to the Grand Orient of France. His brother was just initiated and took part in his masonic baptism.[13][14][15] He remained at the initial degrees of the Masonic spiritual path.
On his return to Paris, Reclus contributed to theRevue des deux mondes, theTour du monde and other periodicals, a large number of articles embodying the results of his geographical work. Among other works of this period was the short bookHistoire d'un ruisseau, in which he traced the development of a great river from source to mouth. During 1867 and 1868, he publishedLa Terre; description des phénomènes de la vie du globe in two volumes.[6]
During theSiege of Paris (1870–1871), Reclus shared in theaerostatic operations conducted byFélix Nadar, and also served in theNational Guard. As a member of theAssociation Nationale des Travailleurs, he published a hostile manifesto against thegovernment of Versailles in support of theParis Commune of 1871 in theCri du Peuple.[6]
Continuing to serve in the National Guard, which was then in open revolt, Reclus was taken prisoner on 5 April intoFort Quélern. On 16 November he was sentenced to deportation for life. Because of intervention by supporters from England, the sentence was commuted in January 1872 to perpetual banishment from France.[6]
After a short visit toItaly, Reclus settled atClarens, Switzerland, where he resumed his literary labours and producedHistoire d'une montagne, a companion toHistoire d'un ruisseau. There he wrote nearly the whole of his work,La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes, "an examination of every continent and country in terms of the effects that geographic features like rivers and mountains had on human populations—and vice versa."[16] This compilation was profusely illustrated with maps, plans, and engravings. It was awarded the gold medal of theParis Geographical Society in 1892. An English edition was published simultaneously, also in 19 volumes, the first four translated byE. G. Ravenstein, the rest byA. H. Keane. Reclus's writings were accurate and explained topics clearly, making them useful literary and scientific sources.[6]
According toKirkpatrick Sale:[16]
His geographical work, thoroughly researched and unflinchingly scientific, laid out a picture of human-nature interaction that we today would callbioregionalism. It showed, with more detail than anyone but a dedicated geographer could possibly absorb, how the ecology of a place determined the kinds of lives and livelihoods its denizens would have and thus how people could properly live in self-regarding and self-determined bioregions without the interference of large and centralized governments that always try to homogenize diverse geographical areas.
In 1882, Reclus initiated theAnti-Marriage Movement. In accordance with these beliefs and the practice ofunion libre ("free unions"), which was common among working-class French in the mid-to-late 1800s,[17] Reclus allowed his two daughters to "marry" their male partners without any civil or religious ceremonies, an action causing embarrassment to many of his well-wishers.[6] Reclus had himself entered a free union in 1872, after the death of his first wife. In 1882 he also wroteUnions Libres, a pamphlet which detailed his anarchist and feminist objections to marriage.[18] The French government initiated prosecution from the High Court ofLyon, arrested him andPeter Kropotkin as the International Association's organizers, and sentenced the latter to five years' imprisonment. Reclus escaped punishment as he remained in Switzerland.[19]
In a 1913 piece, Kropotkin, in admiration of Reclus, said that if anyone asked about the conflicts of the Middle East, that "I should merely open the volume of Elisée Reclus'sGeographie Universelle L'Asie, Russe..."[20]
In 1890, Reclus hostedLuigi Galleani at Lake Geneva in Switzerland, in the Reclus brothers' country house which at that time operated as a safe haven for dissidents fleeing persecution.[21] Reclus offered Galleani a role in writing hisUniversal Geography, with Galleani going on to contribute to statistics about Guatemala to volume XVII which addressed Central America.[21] Reclus later assisted Galleani, and coordinated support for him, in fleeing Italy to Egypt when he faced persecution from the Italian state.[22]
In 1894, Reclus was appointed chair of comparative geography at theFree University of Brussels, and moved with his family toBelgium. His brotherÉlie Reclus was at the university already, teaching religion.[19] Élisée Reclus continued to write, contributing several important articles and essays to French, German and English scientific journals. He was awarded the 1894Patron's Medal of theRoyal Geographical Society.[23]
In 1905, shortly before his death, Reclus completedL'Homme et la terre, in which he rounded out his previous works by considering humanity's development relative to its geographical environment.[24][25]
Reclus died on July 4, 1905. He spent his final days in the countryside atThourout, to the west ofBrussels, staying with his friend Florence de Brouckère.[26] Before he died, he completed the preface of the Russian edition ofL'Homme et la Terre.[26] His brotherPaul, his sister Louise Dumesnil, and his nephewPaul were with him in his last moments.[27] His daughter read him the news of the sailors' revolt on thePotemkin, and he smiled before dying peacefully.[26]
Reclus was buried at a cemetery inIxelles with his brother Élie, who had died in February 1904.[26] Per Reclus' request, there was no funeral procession.[26]
Kropotkin wrote an obituary for Reclus, which was published inThe Geographic Journal in September, 1905.[28] Kropotkin summarised:
"He knew how to die poor after having written wonderful books. And he knew how, having attained the high summits of fame, never to rule anybody and to remain the equal of his humblest collaborator and of every one he met with. He certainly was one of the finest specimens of civilized mankind, a man free in the purest sense of the word."[28]
Following Reclus' death, his sister Louise was responsible for his personal archive of correspondence, family documents, and publications, and his nephew Paul saw to the publication of his posthumous works.[27]
Reclus had strong views onnaturism and the benefits ofnudity. He argued that living naked was more hygienic than wearing clothes; he believed that it was healthier for skin to be fully exposed to light and air so that it could resume its "natural vitality and activity" and become more flexible and firm at the same time. He also argued that from an aesthetic point of view, nudity was better: naked people were more beautiful. His principal objection to clothing was, however, a moral one; he felt that a fixation with clothing caused excessive focus on what was covered.[29][24]: 485
Reclus was a friend of Italian anarchistErrico Malatesta.[30][31]
Without first being engaged and against the advice of his parents, Reclus married Marguerite Claire, known as Clarisse Brian (1832-1869) in a ceremony at Sainte-Foy-La-Grande on December 13, 1858.[32] Clarisse's father was a French sea captain and her mother was a Senegalese woman.[33] Clarisse and Élisée had two daughters together.[33] Élisée and Clarisse's first daughter, Marguerite (called Magali), was born on June 12, 1860 at 10 rue Bénard in Paris' 17th arrondissement.[34] The birth was witnessed by Élie Reclus and Édouard Grimard.[34] Their second daughter, Jeanne (called Jeannie) was born on the 1st of March, 1863 at 7 rue de la Plaine in Paris' 17th arrondissement.[35] The birth was witnessed by Gustave Hickel and Élie Reclus.[35] Élisée insisted against baptising his daughters.[33]
Reclus was admired by many 19th century thinkers, includingAlfred Russel Wallace,[36]George Perkins Marsh,Patrick Geddes,[37]Henry Stephens Salt,[38] andOctave Mirbeau.[39]James Joyce was influenced byLéon Metchnikoff's bookLa civilisation et les grands fleuves historiques, to which Reclus contributed a foreword.[40]
Reclus advocated fornature conservation and opposed meat-eating and cruelty to animals. He was avegetarian.[41] Reclus opposed the domestication of animals for food as a "great evil", writing that "domestication of animals exhibits in many ways moral regression since, far from im-proving animals, we have deformed and corrupted them".[42] Reclus connected humankind's relationship with the natural world to property rights, the family household, and mutual aid.[42] His ideas are seen by some historians and writers as anticipating the modernsocial ecology andanimal rights movements.[43]
The high school in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande is named for him.[44]
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L'Homme et la terre (The Earth and Its Inhabitants), 6 volumes:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Reclus, Jean Jacques Elisée".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 957–958.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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