Andre Breton

Breton, André 

Born Feb. 19, 1896, in Tinchebray, Orne Department; died Sept. 28, 1966, in Paris. French writer.

Breton is the author of Manifesto of Surrealism (1924) and The Second Manifesto of Surrealism (1930). He sympathized with Trotskyism. In the books Arcane 17 (1945), The Situation of Surrealism Between the Two Wars (1945), and Lamp in the Clock (1948), Breton criticized contemporary bourgeois culture. Breton’s artistic prose (Nadja, 1928, and Mad Passion, 1937) and his poems (Free Alliance, 1931; The Gray-haired Revolver, 1932; and others) alternate lively sketches with attacks on the reality of the world.

WORKS

L’Art magique, vol. 1. Paris, 1957. (With G. Legrand.)
Poésie et autre. Paris, 1960.
Manifestes du surrealisme. Paris, 1963.
Anthologie de l’humeur noire. [Paris, 1966.]

REFERENCES

Istoriia frantsuzskoi literatury, vol. 4. Moscow, 1963.
Nadeau, M. Histoire du surréalisme, vols. 1-2. Paris, 1945-48.
Mauriac, C. André Breton. Paris, [1949].
“A. Breton (1896-1966) et le mouvement surréaliste.” La Nouvelle revue française, April 1967, no. 172.
Carrouges, M. A. Breton et les données fondamentales du surréalisme. [Paris, 1967.]