Everything about Reclus totally explained
Élisée Reclus (
March 15 1830 –
July 4 1905), also known as
Jean Jacques Élisée Reclus, was a renowned
French geographer, writer and
anarchist. He produced his masterwork in 19 volumes over a period of nearly 20 years:
La Nouvelle Géographic universelle, la terre et les hommes (1875 – 1894). In 1892 he was awarded the prestigious Gold Medal of the Paris Geographical Society for this work, despite his having been banished from France because of his political activism.
Biography
Reclus was born at
Sainte-Foy-la-Grande (
Gironde). He was the second son of a
Protestant pastor and his wife. From the family of fourteen children, several went on to achieve renown either as men of letters,
politicians or members of the learned professions.
Reclus began his education in Rhenish Prussia, and continued higher studies at the Protestant college of
Montauban. He completed his studies at University of
Berlin, where he followed a long course of geography under
Karl Ritter.
Withdrawing from France because of political events of December 1851, he spent the next six years (1852 – 1857) traveling and working in the
Great Britain, the
United States,
Central America, and
Colombia. Arriving in
Louisiana in 1853, Reclus worked for about 2 1/2 years as a tutor to the family of Septime and Félicité Fortier at their plantation Félicité, located about 50 miles upriver from
New Orleans. He recounted his passage through the
Mississippi river delta and up to antebellum New Orleans in
Fragment d'un voyage á Louisiane, published in 1855.
On his return to
Paris, Reclus contributed to the
Revue des deux mondes, the
Tour du monde and other periodicals a large number of articles embodying the results of his geographical work. Among other works of this period was an excellent short book
Histoire d’un ruisseau, in which he traced the development of a great river from source to mouth. In 1867 – 1868 he published
La Terre; description des phénomènes de la vie du globe, in two volumes.
During the 1870
siege of Paris, Reclus shared in the aerostatic operations conducted by
Félix Nadar, and also served in the National Guard. As a member of the
Association Nationale des Travailleurs, he published in the
Cri du Peuple a hostile manifesto against the government of
Versailles in support of the
Paris Commune of 1871.
Continuing to serve in the National Guard, now in open revolt, Reclus was taken prisoner on
April 5, and on
November 16 sentenced to transportation for life. Because of intervention by supporters from England, the sentence was commuted in January 1872 to perpetual banishment from France.
After a short visit to
Italy, Reclus settled at Clarens, in
Switzerland, where he resumed his literary labours, and produced the
Histoire d’une montagne (a companion to
Histoire d’un ruisseau). There he wrote nearly the whole of his great work,
La Nouvelle Géographic universelle, la terre et les hommes, in 19 vols (1875 – 1894). This is an outstanding compilation, profusely illustrated with
maps, plans, and engravings. Its achievement was crowned with the award of the gold medal of the
Paris Geographical Society in 1892. An English edition appeared simultaneously, also in 19 vols. the first four by E. G. Ravenstein, the rest by A. H. Keane. Reclus’s writings were characterized by extreme accuracy and brilliant exposition, which gave them permanent literary and scientific value.
In 1882 Reclus initiated the
Anti-Marriage Movement, in accordance with which he allowed his two daughters to marry without any civil or religious ceremony. This action caused no little embarrassment to many of his well-wishers. The French government initiated prosecution from the High Court of
Lyon against the
anarchists and members of the International Association, of which Reclus and the influential Anarchist
Kropotkin were designated the two chief organizers. Piotr Kropotkin was arrested and condemned to five years’ imprisonment, but Reclus escaped punishment as he remained in Switzerland.
After 1892, Reclus was appointed chair of comparative geography at the University of
Brussels. He contributed several important articles and essays to French,
German and English scientific journals. Among these were:
- "The Progress of Mankind" (Contemporary Review, 1896)
- "Attila de Gerando" (Revue Géographie, 1898)
- "A Great Globe" (Geograph. Journ., 1898)
- "L’Extrême-Orient" (Bulletin Antwerp Géographie Sociétie, 1898), a thoughtful study of the political geography of the Far East and its possible changes
- "La Perse" (Bulletin Sociétie Neuchateloise, 1899)
- "La Phénice et les Phéniciens" (ibid., 1900)
- "La Chine et la diplomatie européenne" (L'Humanité nouvelle series, 1900)
- "L'Enseignement de la géographie" (Institute Géographie de Bruxelles, No 5, 1901)
Shortly before his death, Reclus had completed
L'Homme et la terre, with which he added to his previous greater works by considering man in his development relative to geographical environment.
Reclus died at
Torhout, near
Bruges, Belgium.
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