A living archive of the writings, images, and legends of Louise Michel

Louise Michel was a schoolteacher, writer and revolutionary who became one of the most compelling figures of nineteenth century France. She played a central role in the Paris Commune, where she ran clubs, helped the poor, nursed the wounded and fought as a soldier, her actions stemming from a deep belief in equality and education for all.

Louise Michel was one of those rare figures whose life reads like legend because she threw herself into everything she believed in. She was known for her courage on the barricades and refused to renounce her ideals even when it meant prison or exile. She defended herself and her fellow Communards with electrifying eloquence at the military trials following the Commune, and when she was exiled to New Caledonia, wrote the first French-Kanak dictionary and encouraged the indigenous tribes to revolt against their French oppressors. After the general amnesty granted to Communards a decade later, she became an anarchist, was the first to fly the black flag of anarchy, and became known for her fierce speeches. She was much beloved. When she survived a politically-motivated assassination attempt in the 1880s – a bullet lodged behind her ear – she defended the man who did it in court.

Louise’s view of the world was humanist, cosmic and poetic. She corresponded with Victor Hugo in her youth, and never stopped writing poetry and letters defending and helping those who needed it. She also wrote science fiction novels and dreamed of what the future would hold. She was fiercely principled, compassionate to the poor, devoted to education, and entirely committed to living the world she wanted to see. She wrote with the same fire she brought to the streets, leaving behind poems, pamphlets and memoirs that reveal a woman driven by justice, imagination and a startling moral clarity that was ahead of its time.