Elisée Reclus is perhaps the greatest geographer of all time, however his immense
work has been erased from many places, possibly because he is an anarchist. TheReclus brothers were 14 in total, they always stayed together, like a commune.The Reclus males were all well-known figures in their time and, with theexception of Armand, anarchist signifiers. But her sisters, almost unknown, alsocarried out important projects, were promoters of free schools and participatedin revolutionary circles. ---- Although she lies in the ditch of oblivion in thehistory academies, Elisée Reclus is perhaps the greatest geographer of all time.He was born French in 1830 and died as a citizen of the world in 1905. In thatinterval he introduced a proposal for the relationship between the human speciesand the environment that we know today as ecology. His love for free humanity andplanet Earth were transmuted into an anarchism that knew how to reach the homesof the oppressed, giving them hope.In the Ixelles cemetery, south of Brussels, as you enter, following the wall tothe left, on Avenue No. 12, you will find a small tombstone on the ground, withthe inscription of the brothers Elie and Elisée Reclus, the first died inBrussels on February 11, 1904, at the age of 76, and the second just a yearlater, on the night of July 3 to 4, 1905 in Torhout, near Bruges, when he was 75years.Paul Reclus, nephew of Elisée and son of Elías, who attended the death of both,wrote a letter to Piotr Kropotkin on July 6, 1905 in which he tells the Russiananarchist about the last days of Elisée Reclus. He refers to the last will of hisuncle, already consecrated in the cultural world of the moment as a greatgeographer. At death's door, still happy to learn that the Kniaz Potemkim sailorshad just rebelled in Russia, he asked that when the time came no one wouldaccompany him to the cemetery where his brother lay, not even his own relatives,except his nephew Paul ( "Paul seul me conduira au cimetière"), who fulfilled hislast wish "to the letter and in its spirit", traveling in the company of thecoffin the more than one hundred kilometers that separate Tourhout from Ixelles,in the last trip of what was Commune guard. So different was his journey, throughthe flatness of the Belgian plains, to those he made during the rest of hisspectacular life, when he crossed mountains, crossed rivers, climbed glaciers andsailed the oceans that he reflected in the books of the.There, in the same mass grave where her brother awaited her, from whom she wasnot separated in life nor would she be separated in death, a companion of therevolution, librarian of the Paris Library during the Commune, Elisée Reclus wasburied on July 6. in the morning, very early, without any type of ceremony,except for the accompaniment of his nephew and a few curious people who, forsure, must not have known the importance of the man who was being buried at thatmoment.Elisée Reclus crossed mountains, crossed rivers, climbed glaciers and sailed theoceans that he reflected in his booksShortly after, someone put the small tombstone that we can see today with thename of the two brothers, a simple and humble slab among the majesty andpageantry of the rest of the tombs and pantheons, a set of funeral sculptures andarchitecture that make today the Cimètiere dŽIxelles, an open-air museum, one ofthe heritage jewels of the Belgian capital.1However, a third name is missing from the tombstone inscription: ten days afterElisée's death, his sister-in-law, Marthe Noémi Reclus, Elie's wife and Paul'smother, also died in Brussels at the age of 77. She was buried on July 14, 1905in the same mass grave, without anything to date indicating that the remains ofthis woman also rest there, who not only accompanied and encouraged the concernsand achievements of the brothers at all times. Reclus, but also starred, alongwith others, in the beginning of the struggle for the rights of women andhumanity in the second half of the 1800s.In a conference given by Gabrielle Cadier-Rey, on the occasion of the meetings onElisée Reclus in Orthez (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) between December 9 and 11, 2005,published under the title Les Reclus au feminin (The Reclus in feminine), Theauthor points out the oblivion that history has brought to the sisters of theillustrious Reclus, whose male names we know are linked to various greatachievements in the advancement of ideas and science: the anthropologist Elie(1827-1904), the geographers Elisée ( 1830-1905) and Onésime (1837-1916), thesailor and promoter of the Panama Canal Armand (1843-1927), and the surgeon Paul(1847-1914), who introduced cocaine as an anesthetic in surgery.All of them men recognized in their time, authors of numerous books of their ownspecialty and, with the exception of Armand, who chose a bourgeois life,anarchist meanings, active members of the revolutionary movements of the momentand of the place where they were.Marthe Noémi led, along with others, the beginnings of the struggle for therights of women and humanity in the second half of 1800Gabriell Cadier-Rey reports on the achievements of the mother, Zéline MargueriteHelène Trigant-Marquet (1805-1887), a notable pedagogue who opened a school andboarding school for girls, and of the daughters and sisters, Suzanne (1824-1844),Loïs (1832-1917), Marie (1834-1918), Louise (1839-1917), Noémi (1841-1915, not tobe confused with Noémi Reclus, wife of Elie), and Yohanna (1845-1937), all ofthem very educated and active participants in turbulent times, who are suspectedof having written and translated on several occasions the writings of theirbrothers for publishing houses of the time, hiding their names behind those ofthe former, as revealed in the letter written by Elisée to her sister-in-lawMadame Noémi Reclus, from Paris in 1868, in which he tells him that a publisherpays him and his brother 600 francs for a translation of the account of theirtravels, as long as it is signed by Elie and not by a woman, because the names ofwomen do not sell (Il nŽa pas voulu dŽune signature of femme, it seems that esnoms féminins ne poussent pas assez à la vente).2In his study of the sisters' achievements, Cardier-Rey does not dwell on thenames of other women closely linked to the Reclus, among whom Elie's and Elisée'scompanions stand out. The companion of the first, Noémi Reclus, who rests withthe brothers in the same Ixelles grave without her name appearing on thetombstone, linked her life to her first cousin, Elie Reclus, in 1855, to the ageof 27 years.The Reclus brothers were all men recognized in their time, authors of numerousbooks of their own specialty and, with the exception of Armand, who chose abourgeois life, anarchist meanings, active members of the revolutionary movementsof the momentNoémi Reclus is remembered for her fight for the recognition of women. Between1868 and 1869, together with other women such as Caroline de Barran, LouiseMichel, André Léo and Maria Deraisme, she founded first the Society for theRevendication of Women's Rights (Societé de revendication des droits de la femme)and then the Society for the melioration du sort de la femme et la revendicationde ses droits, societies endowed with a socialist, revolutionary and clearlyanticlerical character.3 Other founders were Mme. Cotta, María David, AdéleDemars, Maxime Breuil, Nelly Lieytier, along with men like Gustave Francolin,Jules Malarmet, Augustin Vedure and Hyppolite Leval.Its initial purpose was to create a "democratic primary school", forschoolchildren from six to twelve years old, completely outside the control andinfluence of the Church, where the boy and the girl could develop their owninitiative, based on a method that would allow study the natural faculties ofchildhood and adapt to them, instead of violating them with preconceived ideas,stimulating curiosity, observation and reasoning, through the use of directexperimentation and not abstraction.4This pedagogical interest was cut short by the war and the subsequent outbreak ofLa Comuna, where Noémi Reclus participated in the organizational work togetherwith André Leo and three other women, taking responsibility for the Commissionestablished to organize and supervise teaching in the schools of girls, asexpressed in the excellent essay by Ana Muiña, André Léo, from utopian socialismto the Paris Commune.5 It should be noted that Noémi's sister, Pauline Reclus,married to Julio Kergomard from Garibaldi, was an illustrious pedagogue ,education inspector, author of numerous books on education, promoter of nurseryschools and founder of free schools. She received the French Legion of Honor forher work in teaching.Andre LeoAfter the exile that came after her time as a community member, Noémí Reclusunited her days definitively with Elie and Elisée and participated in a largepart of the revolutionary and philosophical circles that her brothers gatheredaround her. Together with Elie, she translated various works for publishers suchas Hachette, such as the voluminous two-volume work Dans les Ténèbres delŽAfrique, by the explorer Henry Morton Stanley.Days after her death, on July 14, 1905, Jean Grave published in the newspaper LesTemps Nouveaux (continuation of La Revolte, which he had directed with Elisée),the obituary of Noémí Reclus, noting that "she was a woman of great heart andgreat intelligence, whom we will always remember with love and esteem". As wehave already pointed out, she was buried in the same grave together with herhusband and her brother-in-law, in Ixelles.Noémi Reclus is believed to have mediated the union between Elisée and MargueriteClarisse Brian (1832-1869). The latter was the first recognized partner of EliséeReclus, mother of her first three daughters (Magali, Jeannie and Anna). Clarissewas Senegalese, mestizo, according to the canons of the time, belonging to theFulani ethnic group, descendant of a British Calvinist dedicated to the slavetrade. In December 1858, Elisée and Clarisse are united in a civil act, afterElisée sets two essential conditions, which are transmitted by Noémi to thefuture partner as a sine qua non condition for the union: no religious ceremonyand no baptizing of the children. sons and daughters, if any.6After the exile that came after her time as a community member, Noémí Reclusunited her days definitively with Elie and Elisée and participated in a largepart of the revolutionary and philosophical circles that the brothers gatheredaround her.There are those who have seen a political gesture in the union of Elisée Recluswith a mestizo woman, although the spirit of what is expressed in hiscorrespondence, sent to his wife from the most varied destinations of his travelsand geographical explorations, reveal a sincere infatuation between both spouses.Clarisse Reclus always took the French climate badly, so different from the oneoriginally from Senegal. She eventually passed away giving birth to her thirddaughter, Anna, who also did not survive. She was the mother of Magali andJeannie, whose free union with their respective partners, held at the Hotel desAmbassadeurs in Paris on October 14, 1882, without a civil or religious ceremony,in the presence of barely a dozen family members, was a scandal for the Parisiansociety of the time, since it was considered concubinage, and in which Elisée andElie gave a speech that shortly after the family would publish in the form of abrochure and in which the bases of this type of free unions are exposed, withbeautiful passages on what should be and suppose the free union between twopeople who love each other.After Clarisse Brian passed away, Elisée Reclus joined her days with FannyLŽHerminez. She had known her long before her, in 1852, when due to her exileafter Louis Bonaparte's coup d'état in France she had to reside in London in theboarding house owned by Edouard L'Herminez and Gudule Eulalie Renard, both"socialist propagandists". This couple had four daughters, of which the eldestwas Rosalie Fanny L'Herminez, who was called Fanny. In the summer of 1869, afterClarisse's death the previous February, Elisée returns to London invited to twosessions of the General Council of the IWA, and there he meets Fanny, now ateacher. Barely a year later, on May 26, 1870, Elisée and Fanny celebrate theirfree union in Vascoeuil (Upper Normandy), in the presence of family and friends,among whom are the anarchist journalist Benoit Malon and his partner, LéodileChampseix, the revolutionary feminist companion of Noémi Reclus that we alreadytalked about, whose pseudonym will be André Leo.Elisée and Elie gave a speech that shortly after the family would publish in theform of a brochure and in which the bases of this type of free unions areexposed, with beautiful passages about what a free union between two people wholove each other should be and supposeAfter the experience of her first union with Clarisse, the opinion and ideasabout marriage had evolved in Elisée Reclus, until she reached the convictionthat it "is an association that depends on the sole will of the spouses, and canbe dissolved, if both deem it so necessary, under their sole responsibilities,the institution providing nothing but obstacles or restrictions to this freedom,which is the highest degree of freedom of conscience."7Fanny and Elisée lived through the turbulent times that were about to come,motivated by the war against Prussia. He enlisted as a balloonist in theAerostatic Observatory battalion founded by photographer Félix Nadar, developingthe system of carrier pigeons launched from balloons, which were also used toobserve enemy positions surrounding Paris. During the siege, Elisée was a simplecommunity guard, captured by the Versailles army, escaping execution due to theinfluence of very significant people of the time, such as Charles Darwin.During his stay in prison, still in September 1871, his companion Fanny liveswith Reclus' children in a house in eastern Paris. The publisher Pierre JulesHetzel helped her survive by paying her 200 francs a month in advance for anedition of the Mountain Story.8Once Elisée is free and after several trips, the couple moves with their childrento live in Lugano, as political refugees, in southeastern Switzerland, just a fewkilometers from Locarno, where Mijail Bakunin and Carlo Cafiero reside, lavishingmeetings in the friendly and anarchist circle of the Reclus, in which Fannyactively participates. Over time. Elisée would become one of the main executorsof Bakunin's archives.Death will surprise Fanny L'Herminez in her first birth. In February 1874 shedied of puerperal fever. The newborn does not survive either.The Reclus sisters go to Elisée, fearing that he will commit suicide. Admiringher partner for her intelligence, Fanny had taught Reclus' children, Magali andJeannie, to speak perfect English, to the point that he would offer the Hetzelpublishing house the translation of some Dravidian tales made by the girls, from14 and 11 years old, a project that the publisher rejects (Brun and Ferretti). Onthe day of Fanny's burial, Elisée said in her funeral speech: "For barely twoyears I had enjoyed a delicious calm in Lugano, succeeding a stormy period. Theplace of her exile had been less harsh for her than that of the homeland."9One of Elisée Reclus' most renowned companions was Caroline Ermance Gonini, whomshe would join in Zurich on October 10, 1875, in the presence of Elie's family. Arenowned botanist and scientist, she had starred in previous exploration tripswith Elisée Reclus, to the point that the latter spoke of her as her "boncompagnon" of her. She drew her attention as a scout because she used to dowithout her in her attire of the cumbersome petticoats that women used to wear.Both were related on the part of Elisée's mother. From her union, for half adozen years, Elisée would live completely surrounded by women: her partnerErmance, her mother and an adoptive daughter of hers and her two naturaldaughters, Magali and Jeannie .Ermance and Elisée would make several trips together, among which the one in 1893through South America stands out. In 1895 the Hachette publishing house publishedVacances chez le grand-pere, by Ermance Reclus, a children's book with a sweetand naturist character, with illustrations of plants and insects, reminiscent ofMy family and other animals, by Gerald Durrel (1956 ).The couple moved with their children to live in Lugano, as political refugees, insoutheastern Switzerland. Over time. Elisée would become one of the mainexecutors of the Bakunin archivesErmance and Elisée must have separated between 1895 and 1900, when the latterjoined Florence de Brouckère, widow of a wealthy liberal bourgeois from Brussels,whose family would give important names to Belgian politics. Brouckére isrecognized by the same name as the historic hotel in Brussels, in whose designElisée is believed to have participated. Florence accompanies Elisée in herproject to make a huge terrestrial globe for the Universal Exhibition in Paris in1900, 127 meters in diameter, which should represent the fraternal union of allthe nations of the world and that finally was not made. Elisée had seen a similarglobe in 1852, at the World's Fair in London, during her exile and residence inthe boarding house where she met Fanny L'Herminez. Now, according to what is readin some of his biographies and by testimonies of his brother Elie, he seemed torecognize in Florence, 20 years younger than him, who was his second partner, tothe point that instead of calling her Florence he always called her Fanny.Florence Brouckère financed a free school and subsidized several Reclus projects,especially those that had to do with teaching. Among her students at that timewere two young women named Alexandra: one was the daughter of Piotr Kropotkin,and the other was the renowned orientalist, anarchist, feminist and indefatigabletraveler, Alexandra David-Neel, the first woman to visit the city of Lhasa,disguised as a beggar in the company of a Tibetan monk. Elisée Reclus wrote theprologue to her anarchist book In Praise of Life, published in 1898[download here].After Elisée's death, in the house of Tourhout and in the presence of Florence,the Reclus clan also buried the memory of Florence Brouckère under a heavy sheetof lead.10 Florence died in the spring of 1927, at the age of 85. Nine yearsearlier, in April 1918, Ermance had died, at the age of 92. The latter claimedand was always recognized by many institutions and circles of the time as "thewidow of Elisée Reclus".Alexandra David-Neel was the first woman to visit the city of Lhasa, disguised asa beggar in the company of a Tibetan monkNoémi, Clarisse, Fanny, Ermance, Florence... also Alexandra?..., all of them wereMadame. Reclus, the great forgotten ones that many biographies of the greatanarchist geographer and brother have placed in the shadow of the clan, sometimesattributing to them a secondary role, as mothers who care for their sons anddaughters and are patient in their absence, like Penelope in the absence ofOdysseus . However, their names have carved their own path in history. They wereintelligent, determined women who surely left their mark on the work of theReclus. Elisée's works, such as La Geografía Universal and El Hombre y la Tierra,of thousands of pages and years of work, surely keep the contributions of thesewomen who, due to the patriarchal conditions of the time, could not publiclyassert their genius and dedication to a utopia that, at that time, was believedto be within reach. We will never know how much there is of them in thosewonderful books.Not far from where Elisée Reclus died, in Bruges, there are also the remains ofanother great exile for the ideas of his time: Luis Vives, who died in that cityin 1540. His wife Margarita Valdaura, much younger than him, survived him until1552. After residing with her in London and tutoring the daughters of Henry VIII,Luis and Margarita went into exile in Bruges, where, due to the ailing conditionof the Valencian Margarita, she had to take charge of writing her texts bydictation, adding corrections and making sure they were released. Nor do we knowhow much there is of one or the other in the texts that have come down to ourdays, although we do know, through the letters that Margarita wrote towards theend of hers to Doña Mencía de Mendoza (Duchess of Calabria, Marchioness ofZeñete, etc.) the hardships that the widow of Vives suffered, dying poor andforgotten by all.As is the case with the Reclus environment, their women's names knock loudly andinsistently on the doors of History.CLARIFICATION ON A PHOTOGRAPHThe photograph of Fanny LŽHerminez, the second companion of Elisée Reclus, withwhom she lived the days of the Commune and exile in Switzerland, has beenextracted from a French page on family trees (www.geneanet.org), without ourhaving been able to verify its authenticity. However, we want to believe that theimage is that of Fanny L'Herminez herself and assume, incidentally, that theauthor of the photograph was Nadar, Gaspard Félix Tournachon (1820-1910), thegreat French photographer linked to La Commune to whom we owe so many portraits,caricatures and drawings. Be that as it may, the photograph could well be thesame one referred to in a letter written by Elisée Reclus to his friend Nadar byhim, just after Fanny died, from her exile in Lugano. The letter reads thus:To Nadar, Lugano, June 24, 1874:dearest friend:I have just received the beautiful photograph that you sent me: I cannot tell youhow moved I was by her testimony of friendship. For me, who lives more with thedead than with the living, that portrait is one of the most precious objects, andI owe it to you. Usually, when I think of Paris, that city that has been beatentwice, I experience a feeling of revulsion, but if I ever went back there, Iwould go and shake its hand to have at least one joy. You and all those who aregood and strong, constitute the nation.I ask you to present my respects to your lady and to your brave Pablo.His friend, Eliseo Reclus.. Choked with tears, the poor mother asks me to add her thanks to mine."[In Eliseo Reclus, Correspondence, translation by Horacio E. Roqué, p. 13]GRADES1 Le cimetière d'Ixelles, une ville miniature.https://issuu.com/ixelles-elsene/docs/cimeti_c3_a8re_broch_fr_20web2 Correspondance dŽElisée Reclus, Tome premier. Schleicher Freres, p. 278, BNF.3 Le feminisme en France, in Les Conférences. Paris, Maison de la Bonne Presse,1912, p. 105, BNF.4 Christophe Brun, Federico Ferretti. Elisee Reclus, a family chronology1796-2014. Chronologie d'Elis'ee Reclus. 2014, http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/5 Ana Muiña, André Léo, from utopian socialism to the Paris Commune. The DeafLantern, Madrid, 2021, p. 49.6 Introduction in Reclus, Elisée, Lettres à Clarisse. Classics Garnier, Paris,2018, p. 11-16.7 Eliseo Reclus, Correspondence, from 1850 to 1995. Imán Editions. Buenos Aires,1943, selection by Luce Fabbri, translation from the French, by Horacio E. Roqué,p. 92.8 Brun and Ferretti, article cited.9 Eliseo Reclus, Correspondence, 1850-1905, p. 129.10 Jean-Didier Vincent, Élisée Reclus, Geographer, anarchist, environmentalist.Editions Robert Laffont, Paris, 2010.https://www.elsaltodiario.com/anarquismo/los-nombres-de-madame-reclus-hermanas-mujeres-elie-noemihttps://www.elsaltodiario.com/anarquismo/los-nombres-de-madame-reclus-hermanas-mujeres-elie-noemi_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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