Élie Reclus (; July 16, 1827 – February 11, 1904) was a French ethnographer and anarchist.
Biography Élie Reclus was the oldest child among five brothers and six sisters. His father was Jacques Reclus, a Protestant minister in Montcaret, and his mother was Marguerite Zéline Trigant, a teacher who founded a school at Orthez.Fleming, Marie. (1988). The Geography of Freedom: The Odyssey of Élisée Reclus. Montréal: Black Rose Book. p.27, 29, 200 His middle three brothers, including the well known anarchist Élisée Reclus, all became geographers.
Élie and his brother Élisée were close friends with the botanist Édouard Grimard, living together while they studied theology at Montauban.Élisée Reclus, Correspondance, vol. 2, 2010, Joël Cornuault, Élisée Reclus, étonnant géographe, 1999, Fleming, Marie. 1988. The Geography of Freedom. Black Rose Books. pp.32-33 Élisée and Élie were expelled from the school at Montauban for their socialist politics, and after taking unauthorised leave to walk to the Mediterranean with Édouard.Christophe Brun, Federico Ferretti. ELISÉE RECLUS, UNE CHRONOLOGIE FAMILIALE 1796-2014. 2014, http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/. ⟨hal-01018828⟩. p.16.
On May 30th in 1855, Élie married Noémie (1825-1905), his first cousin, and settled in Ternes.Christophe Brun, Federico Ferretti. ELISÉE RECLUS, UNE CHRONOLOGIE FAMILIALE 1796-2014. 2014, http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/. ⟨hal-01018828⟩. p.21 Élie then took a job working in the litigation office of a bank.Christophe Brun, Federico Ferretti. ELISÉE RECLUS, UNE CHRONOLOGIE FAMILIALE 1796-2014. 2014, http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/. ⟨hal-01018828⟩. p.21
In 1866 a feminist group called the Société pour la Revendication du Droit des Femmes began to meet at the house of André Léo. Members included Paule Minck, Louise Michel, Eliska Vincent, Élie Reclus and his wife Noémie, Mme Jules Simon and Caroline de Barrau. Maria Deraismes also participated. Because of the broad range of opinions, the group decided to focus on the subject of improving girls' education.
Élie Reclus served as director of the Bibliotheque National in Paris during the Commune de Paris. Condemned par contumace, he went to the United States, then to England, until the French government amnesty in March 1879. While exiled in London, he presented to the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland his first article against circumcision, Circumcision, signification, origins and other similar rituals, in January 1879.Revue internationale des sciences (Tome III, 1879, Paris)
Reclus also taught Charles Fairfield, who was the father of Rebecca West."...late in her life, she [West] referred frequently to the anarchist Reclus brothers, one of whom (Elisée Reclus) had been a famous geographer in his time, while the other (Elie Reclus) had been the private tutor of West's father, Charles Fairfield..." Bernard Schweizer, Rebecca West: Heroism, Rebellion, and the Female Epic.Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2002. .
Reclus died at 5 in the morning on February 11th, 1904 at his home on rue Victor-Greyson in Ixelles.Christophe Brun, Federico Ferretti. ELISÉE RECLUS, UNE CHRONOLOGIE FAMILIALE 1796-2014. 2014, http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/. ⟨hal-01018828⟩. p.101. He had been suffering with the flu.Christophe Brun, Federico Ferretti. ELISÉE RECLUS, UNE CHRONOLOGIE FAMILIALE 1796-2014. 2014, http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/. ⟨hal-01018828⟩. p.101. At his deathbed were his wife Noémi, his son Paul, his daughter-in-law Marguerite, his brother Elisée, his sisters Noémi Reclus and Louise Reclus, his cousin Pauline Reclus, and his nephew Elie Faure.Christophe Brun, Federico Ferretti. ELISÉE RECLUS, UNE CHRONOLOGIE FAMILIALE 1796-2014. 2014, http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/. ⟨hal-01018828⟩. p.101. Reclus was buried at Ixelles, his brother Élisée and wife Noémie were later interred in the same burial plot.Fleming, Marie. 1988. The Geography of Freedom. Black Rose Books. p.198
Works Many articles in French or foreign journals or magazines, among which: Revue de l’Ouest, Bay Saint-Louis (United States) Mysl, then Dielo, Saint-Petersburg Rousskoïé Slovo The Times Putnam’s Magazine, International, San Francisco) La Gironde (« Lettres d’un cosmopolite ») La Rive gauche La Nouvelle Revue, Revue de la Société d’anthropologie La Commune 1864: Introduction to the Dictionnaire des communes de France, in collaboration with Élisée Reclus, Hachette 1885: Les Primitifs, Chamerot. 1894: Les Primitifs d’Australie, Dentu. 1896: Renouveau d’une cité, in collaboration with Élisée Reclus, La Société nouvelle 1894–1904: conferences at the New University of Brussels on the evolution of religions 1904–1910, posthumes: Le Mariage tel qu’il fut et tel qu’il est, Imprimerie nouvelle, Mons La Commune de Paris au jour le jour, Schleicher, reedited in 2011 by the Association Théolib; Les Croyances populaires, lessons at the New University Le Pain. La Doctrine de Luther, la Société nouvelle Les Physionomies végétales, Costes
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External links
The Commune Day by Day: May 25