André Breton

André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, known as a principal theorist and co-founder of surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto (Manifeste du surréalisme) of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism".

Along with his role as leader of the surrealist movement he is the author of celebrated books such as Nadja and L'Amour fou (Mad Love). Those activities, combined with his critical and theoretical work on writing and the visual arts, made André Breton a major figure in 20th-century French art and literature.

Biography André Breton was the only son born to a family of modest means in Tinchebray (Orne) in Normandy, France. His father, Louis-Justin Breton, was a policeman and atheist, and his mother, Marguerite-Marie-Eugénie Le Gouguès, was a former seamstress. Breton attended medical school, where he developed a particular interest in mental illness. His education was interrupted when he was conscripted for World War I. Vaché committed suicide at age 23, and his war-time letters to Breton and others were published in a volume entitled Lettres de guerre (1919), for which Breton wrote four introductory essays.

Breton married his first wife, Simone Kahn, on 15 September 1921. The couple relocated to rue Fontaine 42 in Paris on 1 January 1922. The apartment on rue Fontaine (in the Pigalle district) became home to Breton's collection of more than 5,300 items: modern paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, books, art catalogs, journals, manuscripts, and works of popular and Oceanic art. Like his father, he was an atheist.

From Dada to Surrealism Breton launched the review Littérature in 1919, with Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault. He also associated with Dadaist Tristan Tzara.

In Les Champs Magnétiques (The Magnetic Fields), a collaboration with Soupault, he implemented the principle of automatic writing. With the publication of his Surrealist Manifesto in 1924 came the founding of the magazine La Révolution surréaliste and the Bureau of Surrealist Research. A group of writers became associated with him: Soupault, Louis Aragon, Paul Éluard, René Crevel, Michel Leiris, Benjamin Péret, Antonin Artaud, and Robert Desnos.

Eager to combine the themes of personal transformation found in the works of Arthur Rimbaud with the politics of Karl Marx, Breton and others joined the French Communist Party in 1927, from which he was expelled in 1933. Nadja, a novel about his imaginative encounter with a woman who later becomes mentally ill, was published in 1928. Due to the economic depression, he had to sell his art collection, but he later rebuilt it.

In reaction to the Second Manifesto, writers and artists published in 1930 a collective collection of pamphlets against Breton, entitled (in allusion to an earlier title by Breton) Un Cadavre. The authors were members of the surrealist movement who were insulted by Breton or had otherwise opposed his leadership. The pamphlet criticized Breton's oversight and influence over the movement. It marked a divide amidst the early surrealists. Georges Limbour and Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes commented on the sentence where shooting at random in the crowd is described as the simplest surrealist act. Limbour saw in it an example of buffoonery and shamelessness and Ribemont-Dessaignes called Breton a hypocrite, a cop and a priest.

After the publication of this pamphlet against Breton, the Manifesto had a second edition, where Breton added in a note: "While I say that this act is the simplest, it is clear that my intention is not to recommend it to all merely by virtue of its simplicity; to quarrel with me on this subject is much like a bourgeois asking any non-conformist why he does not commit suicide, or asking a revolutionary why he hasn't moved to the USSR."

In 1935, there was a conflict between Breton and the Soviet writer and journalist Ilya Ehrenburg during the first International Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture, which opened in Paris in June. Breton had been insulted by Ehrenburgalong with all fellow surrealistsin a pamphlet which said, among other things, that surrealists shunned work, favouring parasitism, and that they endorsed "onanism, pederasty, fetishism, exhibitionism, and even sodomy." Breton slapped Ehrenburg several times on the street, which resulted in surrealists being expelled from the Congress. René Crevel, who according to Salvador Dalí was "the only serious communist among surrealists", was isolated from Breton and other surrealists, who were unhappy with Crevel because of his bisexuality and annoyed with communists in general. and Breton escaped, with the help of the American Varian Fry and Hiram "Harry" Bingham IV, to the United States and the Caribbean during 1941. He emigrated to New York City and lived there for a few years. Breton collaborated with artist Wifredo Lam on the publication of Breton's poem "Fata Morgana", which was illustrated by Lam.

Breton got to know Martinican writers Suzanne Césaire and Aimé Césaire, and later composed the introduction to the 1947 edition of Aimé Césaire's Cahier d'un retour au pays natal. During his exile in New York City he met Elisa Bindhoff, the Chilean woman who became his third wife.

Breton's sojourn in Haiti coincided with the overthrow of the country's president, Élie Lescot, by a radical protest movement. Breton's visit was warmly received by La Ruche, a youth journal of revolutionary art and politics, which in January 1946 published a talk given by Breton alongside a commentary which Breton described as having "an insurrectional tone". The issue concerned was suppressed by the government, sparking a student strike, and two days later, a general strike: Lescot was toppled a few days later. Among the figures associated with both La Ruche and the instigation of the revolt were the painter and photographer Gérald Bloncourt and the writers René Depestre and Jacques Stephen Alexis. In subsequent interviews Breton downplayed his personal role in the unrest, stressing that "the misery, and thus, the patience of the Haitian people, were at the breaking point" at the time and stating that "it would be absurd to say that I alone incited the fall of the government". Michael Löwy has argued that the lectures that Breton gave during his time in Haiti resonated with the youth associated with La Ruche and the student movement, resulting in them "plac(ing) them as a banner on their journal" and "t(aking) hold of them as they would a weapon". Löwy has identified three themes in Breton's talks which he believes would have struck a particular chord with the audience, namely surrealism's faith in youth, Haiti's revolutionary heritage, and a quote from Jacques Roumain extolling the revolutionary potential of the Haitian masses.

Later life

Breton returned to Paris in 1946, where he opposed French colonialism (for example as a signatory of the Manifesto of the 121 against the Algerian War) and continued, until his death, to foster a second group of surrealists in the form of expositions or reviews (La Brèche, 1961–65). In 1959, he organized an exhibit in Paris.

Legacy Breton as a collector Breton was an avid collector of art, ethnographic material, and unusual trinkets. He was particularly interested in materials from the northwest coast of North America. Due to personal financial difficulties, in 1931, he had to auction off most of his collection (along with that of his friend Paul Éluard). He subsequently rebuilt the collection in his studio and home at 42 rue Fontaine. The collection grew to over 5,300 items: modern paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, books, art catalogs, journals, manuscripts, and works of popular and Oceanic art.

French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss endorsed Breton's skill in authentication based on their time together in 1940s New York.

After Breton's death on 28 September 1966, his third wife, Elisa, and his daughter, Aube, allowed students and researchers access to his archive and collection. After thirty-six years, when attempts to establish a surrealist foundation to protect the collection were opposed, the collection was auctioned by Calmels Cohen at Drouot-Richelieu. A wall of the apartment is preserved at the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Nine previously partly unpublished manuscripts, including the Manifeste du surréalisme, were auctioned by Sotheby's in May 2008.

Personal life Breton married three times:

from 1921 to 1931, to Simone Collinet, née Kahn (1897–1980) from 1934 to 1943, to Jacqueline Lamba, with whom he had his only child, a daughter, from 1945 to 1966 (his death), to Elisa Bindhoff Enet

Works Year Original Title English Title / Meaning Co-author(s) / Notes 1919 Mont de piété "Mount of piety" 1920 S'il vous plaît If You Please Les Champs magnétiques The Magnetic Fields with Philippe Soupault 1923 Clair de terre Earthlight 1924 Les Pas perdus The Lost Steps Manifeste du surréalisme Surrealist Manifesto Poisson soluble "Soluble fish" Un cadavre "A corpse" 1926 Légitime défense "Legitimate defense"1928 Le Surréalisme et la peinture Surrealism and Painting Expanded editions in 1945 and 1965 Nadja Nadja Expanded edition 19631930 Ralentir travaux "Slow down, men at work" with René Char and Paul Éluard Deuxième Manifeste du surréalisme The Second Manifesto of Surrealism L'Immaculée Conception Immaculate Conception with Paul Éluard 1931 L'Union libre "Free union" 1932 Misère de la poésie "Poetry's misery" Le Revolver à cheveux blancs "The white-haired revolver" Les Vases communicants Communicating Vessels Expanded edition 1955 1933 Le Message automatique The Automatic Message 1934 Qu'est-ce que le surréalisme? What Is Surrealism? Point du jour Break of Day L'Air de l'eau "The air of the water" 1935 Position politique du surréalisme "Political position of surrealism"1936 Au lavoir noir "At the black washtub" Notes sur la poésie "Notes on poetry" with Paul Éluard1937 Le Château étoilé "The starry castle" L'Amour fou Mad Love1938 Trajectoire du rêve "Trajectory of dream" Dictionnaire abrégé du surréalisme "Abridged dictionary of surrealism" with Paul Éluard Pour un art révolutionnaire indépendant "For an independent revolutionary art" with Diego Rivera 1940 Anthologie de l'humour noir Anthology of Black Humor Expanded edition 1966 1941 "Fata morgana" A long poem included in subsequent anthologies 1943 Pleine marge "Full margin" 1944 Arcane 17 Arcanum 17 1945 Situation du surréalisme entre les deux guerres "Situation of surrealism between the two wars"1946 Yves Tanguy Monograph on Yves Tanguy Les Manifestes du surréalisme Manifestoes of Surrealism Expanded editions 1955 and 1962 Young Cherry Trees Secured Against Hares – Jeunes cerisiers garantis contre les lièvres Bilingual edition of poems translated by Edouard Roditi 1947 Ode à Charles Fourier Ode to Charles Fourier 1948 Martinique, charmeuse de serpents Martinique: Snake Charmer with André Masson La Lampe dans l'horloge "The lamp in the clock" Poèmes 1919–48 "Poems 1919–48" 1949 Flagrant délit "Red-handed" 1952 Entretiens Conversations: The Autobiography of Surrealism 1953 La Clé des champs Free Rein 1954 Farouche à quatre feuilles "Four-leaf feral" with Lise Deharme, Julien Gracq, Jean Tardieu 1957 L'Art magique Magical Art 1959 Constellations Constellations with Joan Miró 1961 Le la "The A" 1966 Clair de terre Earthlight Anthology of poems 1919–1936 1968 Signe ascendant "Ascendant sign" Anthology of poems 1935–1961 1970 Perspective cavalière Cavalier perspective 1988 Breton : Oeuvres complètes, tome 1 "Breton: The Complete Works, tome 1" 1992 Breton : Oeuvres complètes, tome 2 "Breton: The Complete Works, tome 2" 1999 Breton : Oeuvres complètes, tome 3 "Breton: The Complete Works, tome 3" "—" indicates that an English title is unavailable, or that there are no co-authors or additional notes.