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Élisée Reclus

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Élisée Reclus
Born(1830-03-15)15 March 1830
Sainte-Foy-la-Grande,Gironde,France
Died4 July 1905(1905-07-04)(aged 75)
Torhout,Belgium
Alma materUniversity of Berlin
Occupation(s)Geographer, anarchist revolutionary, and writer
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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 Societyfor this work, despite having been banished from France because of his political activism.

Biography[edit]

Reclus was born atSainte-Foy-la-Grande(Gironde). He was the second son of aProtestantpastor and his wife. From the family of fourteen children, several brothers, including fellow geographersOnésimeandÉlie Reclus,went on to achieve renown either asmen of letters,politicians or members of the learned professions.[1]

Reclus began his education inRhenish Prussia,and continued higher studies at the Protestant college ofMontauban.He completed his studies at theUniversity of Berlin,where he followed a long course of geography underCarl Ritter.[1]

Withdrawing from France due to the political events of December 1851, as a young man he spent the next six years (1852–1857) traveling and working inGreat Britain,theUnited States,Central America,andColombia.[1]Arriving inLouisianain 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 mi) upriver fromNew Orleans.He recounted his passage through theMississippi River Deltaand impressions of antebellum New Orleans and the state inFragment d'un voyage à la Nouvelle-Orléans,published in 1855.[2]

On his return to Paris, Reclus contributed to theRevue des deux mondes,theTour du mondeand 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 globein two volumes.[1]

Reclus readingLe Cri du Peuplein the garden of his home in Brussels, c. 1894–1905

During theSiege of Paris (1870–1871),Reclus shared in theaerostaticoperations 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 Versaillesin support of theParis Communeof 1871 in theCri du Peuple.[1]

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.[1]

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."[3]This compilation was profusely illustrated with maps, plans, and engravings. It was awarded the gold medal of theParis Geographical Societyin 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 characterized by extreme accuracy and brilliant exposition, which gave them permanent literary and scientific value.[1]

According toKirkpatrick Sale:[3]

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-MarriageMovement. 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,[4]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.[1]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.[5]The French government initiated prosecution from the High Court ofLyon,arrested him andPeter Kropotkinas the International Association's organizers, and sentenced the latter to five years' imprisonment. Reclus escaped punishment as he remained in Switzerland.[6]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... "[7]

Reclus had strong views onnaturismand 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.[8][9]: 485 

Élisée Reclus

In 1894, Reclus was appointed chair of comparative geography at theFree University of Brussels,and moved with his family toBelgium.His brotherÉlie Recluswas at the university already, teaching religion.[6]Élisée Reclus continued to write, contributing several important articles and essays to French, German and English scientific journals. He was awarded the 1894Patron's Medalof theRoyal Geographical Society.[10]

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.[9][11]

Personal life[edit]

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.[12][13][14]He remained at the initial degrees of the Masonic spiritual path.

Reclus married and had a family, including two daughters.

He died atTorhout,nearBruges,Belgium.

Legacy[edit]

Reclus was admired by many prominent 19th century thinkers, includingAlfred Russel Wallace,[15]George Perkins Marsh,Patrick Geddes,[16]Henry Stephens Salt,[17]andOctave Mirbeau.[18]James Joycewas influenced byLéon Metchnikoff's bookLa civilisation et les grands fleuves historiques,to which Reclus contributed a foreword.[19]

Reclus advocatednature conservationand opposed meat-eating and cruelty to animals. He was avegetarian.[20]As a result, his ideas are seen by some historians and writers as anticipating the modernsocial ecologyandanimal rightsmovements.[21]

Selected works[edit]

Books[edit]

L'Homme et la terre(The Earth and Its Inhabitants "), 6 volumes:

  • L'Homme et la terre(1905), e-text online, Internet Archive
  • Élisée Reclus (1876–1894), A.H. Keane (ed.),The Earth and its Inhabitants,London: Virtue & Co.
  • Elisée Reclus (1890).The Earth and Its Inhabitants.D. Appleton and Company.
  • Élisée Reclus (1883–1893),The Earth and its Inhabitants,New York: D. Appleton,OCLC6631001
  • The earth and its inhabitants. The universal geography,ed. by E.G. Ravenstein (A.H. Keane). (J.S. Virtue, 1878)
  • The earth and its inhabitants, Asia, Volume 1(D. Appleton and Company, 1891)
  • The Earth and Its Inhabitants...: Asiatic Russia: Caucasia, Aralo-Caspian basin, Siberia(D. Appleton and Company, 1891)
  • The Earth and Its Inhabitants...: South-western Asia(D. Appleton and Company, 1891)

Anthology[edit]

  • Du sentiment de la nature dans les sociétés moderneset autres textes, Éditions Premières Pierres, 2002 –ISBN9782913534049

Articles[edit]

  • The Progress of Mankind(Contemporary Review,1896)
  • Attila de Gerando(Revue Géographie,1898)
  • A Great Globe(Geograph. Journal,1898)
  • L'Extrême-Orient(Bulletin de la Société royale de géographie d'Anvers,1898), a study of the political geography of the Far East and its possible changes
  • Elisée Reclus (1867).La Guerre du Paraguay.(Revue des Deux Mondes).ISBN9781465509598.a report made for Parisian newspapers about theParaguayan War,sympathetic towards the Paraguayan side.
  • La Perse(Bulletin de la Société neuchâteloise,1899)
  • La Phénicie et les Phéniciens(ibid., 1900)
  • La Chine et la diplomatie européenne(L'Humanité nouvelleseries, 1900)
  • L'Enseignement de la géographie(Institut de géographie de Bruxelles,No 5, 1901)
  • On Vegetarianism(Humane Review,1901)

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^abcdefghChisholm 1911,p. 957.
  2. ^Clark, John."Putting Freedom on the Map: The Life and Work of Élisée Reclus (Introduction and translation ofFragment) ".Mesechabe.11(Winter 1993): 14–17.Retrieved15 May2008.
  3. ^abSale, Kirkpatrick(1 July 2010)"Are Anarchists Revolting?"Archived12 December 2010 at theWayback Machine,The American Conservative,1 July 2010
  4. ^McPhee, Peter (2004).A Social History of France 1780-1914(Second ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. p. 195.
  5. ^Ferretti, Federico."Anarchist geographers and feminism in late 19th century France: the contributions of Elisée and Elie Reclus".Feminist Historical Geographi.44:68–88.
  6. ^abIngeborg Landuyt and Geert Lernout, "Joyce's Sources: Les Grands Fleuves Historiques",originally published inJoyce Studies,Annual 6 (1995): 99–138
  7. ^Peter Kropotkin (1913)."The Coming War".The Nineteenth Century: A monthly Review.
  8. ^Reclus, Elisée (2004). Clark, John P.; Martin, Camille (eds.).Anarchy, Geography, Modernity: The Radical Social Thought of Elisée Reclus.Lanham, MD: Le xing ton Books. pp. 107–.ISBN978-0-7391-0805-5.
  9. ^abReclus, Élisée (1905).L'Homme et la terre.Vol. Tome VI. Paris: Paris, Librairie universelle.
  10. ^"List of Past Gold Medal Winners"(PDF).Royal Geographical Society. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 27 September 2011.Retrieved24 August2015.
  11. ^Chisholm 1911,p. 958.
  12. ^ Léo Campion,Le drapeau noir, l'équerre et le compas: les Maillons libertaires de la Chaîne d'Union,full text
  13. ^Revue belge de géographie,volumes 110 à 112, 1986,page 10
  14. ^Jean-Paul Bord, Raffaele Cattedra, Ronald Creagh, Jean-Marie Miossec, Georges Roques,Elisée Reclus - Paul Vidal de la Blache: Le géographe, la cité et le monde, hier et aujourd'hui,L'Harmattan, 2009,page 13.
  15. ^Wallace, A. R. (1905).My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions.Chapman and Hall.OCLC473067997.
  16. ^Livingstone, David N. (1993).The Geographical Tradition: Episodes in the History of a Contested Enterprise.Wiley-Blackwell.ISBN0-631-18535-6.OCLC25787010.
  17. ^"Are we to apply the name" crank "to that great thinker and beautiful writer, Elisee Reclus? One of the finest essays ever written in praise of vegetarianism is an article which he contributed to the Humane Review when I was editing it in 1901."Salt, Henry Stephens (1930).Company I have kept.George Allen & Unwin. p. 162.OCLC2113916.
  18. ^"...the scales were finally tipped...by Mirbeau's contact with the works of Kropotkin, Reclus andTolstoy....They were the compound catalyst which caused Mirbeau's own ideas to crystallise, and they constituted a trilogy of enduring influences. "Reg Carr,Anarchism in France: The Case of Octave MirbeauManchester University Press, 1977.
  19. ^La Civilisation et les grands fleuves historiques.Hachette. 1889.
  20. ^"History of Vegetarianism – Élisée Reclus (1830 – 1905)".ivu.org.International Vegetarian Union.Retrieved23 January2010.
  21. ^Marshall, Peter(1993). "Élisée Reclus: The Geographer of Liberty".Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism.London: Fontana.ISBN0-00-686245-4.OCLC490216031.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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