He was born at
Sainte-Foy-la-Grande (
Gironde). He was the second son of a
Protestant pastor, who had a family of fourteen children, several of whom acquired some celebrity either as men of letters,
politicians or members of the learned professions.
His education, begun in Rhenish Prussia, was continued in the Protestant college of
Montauban, and completed at the university of
Berlin, where he followed a long course of geography under
Karl Ritter.
Withdrawing from France in consequence of the events of December 1851, he spent the next six years (1852 – 1857) visiting the
British Isles, the
United States, Central America, and
Colombia. On his return to
Paris he 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 at this period was an excellent short book,
Histoire d’un ruisseau, in which he traces 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, while 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, he was taken prisoner on
April 5, and on
November 16 sentenced to transportation for life; but, largely at the instance of influential deputations from England, the sentence was commuted in January 1872 to perpetual banishment.
Thereupon, after a short visit to
Italy, he settled at Clarens, in
Switzerland, where he resumed his literary labours, and, after producing the
Histoire d’une montagne (a companion to
Histoire d’un ruisseau), wrote nearly the whole of his great work,
La Nouvelle Géographic universelle, la terre et les hommes, 19 vols (1875 – 1894). This is a stupendous compilation, profusely illustrated with
maps, plans, and engravings, and was crowned with 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.
Extreme accuracy and brilliant exposition form the leading characteristics of all Reclus’s writings, which thus possess 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 sanction whatever. This step caused no little embarrassment to many of his well-wishers, and was followed by government prosecutions, instituted in the High Court of
Lyon, against the
anarchists, members of the International Association, of which Reclus and the influential Anarchist
Kropotkin were designated as the two chief organizers. Piotr Kropotkin was arrested and condemned to five years’ imprisonment, but Reclus, being resident in Switzerland, escaped.
After 1892 he filled the chair of comparative geography in the university of
Brussels, and contributed several important memoirs to French,
German and English scientific journals. Among these may be mentioned:
* "The Progress of Mankind" (Contemp. Rev., 1896)
* "
Attila de Gerando" (Rev. Géograph., 1898)
* "A Great Globe" (Geograph. Journ., 1898)
* "
L’Extrême-Orient" (Bul. Antwerp Geo. Soc., 1898), a thoughtful study of the political geography of the Far East and its possible changes
* "
La Perse" (Bul. Soc. 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" (Instit. Geograph. de Bruxelles, No 5, 1901)
Shortly before his death Reclus had completed
L'Homme et la terre, in which he set the crown on his previous greater works by considering man in his development relative to geographical environment.
Reclus died at
Torhout, near
Bruges.
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