UN NAUFRAGE AU TEXAS. OBSERVATIONS ET IMPRESSIONS RECUEILLIES PENDANT DEUX ANS ET DEMI AU TEXAS ET A TRAVERS LES ÉTAT-UNIS D'AMÉRIQU

Pari: Garnier Frére, 1858. [4],344pp. Half title. 12mo. Original printed wrappers. Minor staining and chipping to wrappers, expertly mended along the joints. Scattered foxing to text, else clean internally. Very good. Untrimmed. In a half morocco and cloth clamshell box, spine gilt. A captivating account of the failed socialist utopian community at Reunion, written by the group's physician. "In 1853 Victor Considerant and Albert Brisbane journeyed by horseback through Texas, and Considerant returned to Europe full of plans for creating a utopian socialist colony there. He raised over a million francs and purchased 47,000 acres in Texas. In 1855 he returned with colonists and established the settlement of La Reunion near Dallas. Subsequently, close to 500 colonists settled there. These included writers, musicians, artists, artisans, and free spirits, but only two farmers. As might be expected, a couple of years of utopian bickering and successive Texas droughts brought the experiment to a speedy collapse. The colony was abandoned, and Considerant moved to San Antonio, where he lived until 1869 when he returned to France. Many of the colonists at La Reunion were well-educated, and Julie Considerant organized a salon in a cedar brake along the banks of the Trinity, where the colonists met to discuss the ideas of Fourier, Proudhon, Cabet, Sue, Hugo, and other writers and philosophers. Some colonists brought with them extensive libraries, several of which have found their way into university libraries in Texas" - Jenkins.

The experiment at Reunion was to be one of the first exercises in practical communism. Considerant, well known in European progressive circles, was an intimate of Marx and some have suggested the latter may have even plagiarized from Considerant's work. Regardless, Considerant was among the first to establish a community on what could be called Marxist principles, and he was widely successful at convincing others to join him. Among the subscribers was Dr. Augustin Savardan, who became the leading physician of the colony and its chief magistrate. But his stay in the colony was brief, and by 1857 several significant conflicts with Considerant prompted him to leave the venture and return to France. In 1858 he published this exposé, lambasting Considerant for his shoddy preparation and overall inadequacy as a leader.

"This book is the only detailed record by a colonist of the day-to-day life in La Réunion" - HANDBOOK OF TEXAS. An essential and extremely rare Texas item. BASIC TEXAS BOOKS 33 (ref). HOWES S127, "aa." SABIN 77268. EBERSTADT 162:182. RAINES, p.182. HANDBOOK OF TEXAS (online)