André Breton

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André Breton, c1929.
Born February 19, 1896(1896-02-19)
Tinchebray, France
Died September 28, 1966(1966-09-28) (aged 70)
Paris, France

André Breton (1896–1966) was a French writer and poet. He is best known as the founder of Surrealism, with Paul Éluard, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí.

In 1924 he published his Manifeste du surréalisme, defining surrealism as "SURREALISM, noun, masc., Pure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express, either verbally or in writing, the true function of thought. Thought dictated in the absence of all control exerted by reason, and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations." [1].

Works[edit]

(in French unless noted otherwise)

Essays[edit]

  • "Le Surréalisme et la peinture", 4 parts in La Révolution surréaliste: Part 1, No. 4, pp 26-30, Jul 1925; Part 2, No. 6, pp 30-32, Mar 1926; Part 3, No. 7, pp 3-6, Jun 1926; Part 4, No. 9-10, pp 36-43, Oct 1927; repr. as Breton, Le surréalisme et la peinture, Paris: NRF, 1928, 72+77 pp; new ed., Paris: Gallimard, 1965, 427 pp.
    • "Surrealism and Painting", trans. David Gascoyne, in Breton, What is Surrealism?, 1936, pp 9-24. Excerpt. (English)
    • Surrealism and Painting, trans. Simon Watson Taylor, New York: Harper & Row, 1965, 16+416 pp. (English)
    • Il surrealismo e la pittura, trans. Ettore Capriolo, Firenze: Marchi, 1966, 427 pp. (Italian)
  • "Lettre aux voyantes", 1929.
  • Qu'est-ce que le surréalisme ?, Brussels: R. Henriquez, 1934, 29 pp.
    • What is Surrealism? Selected Writings, ed. & intro. Franklin Rosemont, trans. David Gascoyne, London: Faber & Fabe, 1936, 90 pp. (English)
    • Co je surrealismus? Tři přednásky, trans. & afterw. Vítězslav Nezval, Brno: J. Jicha, 1937, 157 pp. (Czech)
  • "Dictionnaire abrégé du surréalisme", 1938.
  • "Du surréalisme en ses œuvres vives", 1954.

Fiction[edit]

  • with Philippe Soupault, Les champs magnétiques, Paris: Au Sans pareil, May 1920; 2nd ed., Paris: Au Sans pareil, 1920, 111 pp, KHZ. [4] (French)
  • Nadja, 1928; 1963; 1964; Gallimard, 1998.
    • Nadja, trans. Richard Howard, New York: Grove Press, 1960. (English)
  • Les Vases communicants, 1932; 2nd ed., Paris: Gallimard, 1955, 207 pp.
    • Communicating Vessels, trans. Mary Ann Caws and Geoffrey T. Harris, notes & intro. Mary Ann Caws, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990, 159 pp. (English)
  • L'Amour fou, Paris: Gallimard, 1937.

Poetry[edit]

  • Fata morgana, 1939.

Selected works[edit]

  • Muž a žena čisto bieli, trans. Vladimír Reisel, Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ, 1967, 156 pp. Poems. [5] (Slovak)
  • Position politique du surréalisme, Paris: Jean-Jacques Pauvert, 1971, 32 pp. Collection of texts and interviews by Breton. Special issue of La Bibliothèque Volante 2, May 1971.
  • Manifestes du surréalisme. Éditions complètes, Paris: Jean-Jacques Pauvert, 1972.
  • What is Surrealism: Selected Writings, Pathfinder Press, 1978. (English)

Collected works[edit]

  • Les œuvres complètes d’André Breton, Paris: Gallimard, 1988.

Correspondence[edit]

  • Lettres à Aube. 1938-1966, ed. Jean-Michel Goutier, Paris: Gallimard, 2009.

Literature[edit]

Links[edit]