Editing André Breton (section)

==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 [[atheism|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]].<ref name="André Breton">{{cite web |url=http://www.biography.com/people/andr%C3%A9-breton-37471 |title=André Breton |website=Biography.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170506064912/http://www.biography.com/people/andr%C3%A9-breton-37471 |archive-date=2017-05-06 |language=en-us |access-date=2020-07-11 |url-status=live }}</ref> His education was interrupted when he was [[Conscription in France#World War I|conscripted for World War I]].<ref name="André Breton"/>

During [[World War I]], he worked in a neurological ward in [[Nantes]], where he met the [[Alfred Jarry]] devotee [[Jacques Vaché]], whose anti-social attitude and disdain for established artistic tradition influenced Breton considerably.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lCwBWk5LcAMC&q=Vach%C3%A9+que+je+dois+le+plus&pg=PA552 |title=Dada, circuit total |publisher=L'AGE D'HOMME |author=Henri Béhar, Catherine Dufour |year=2005 |page=552 |isbn=9782825119068 |access-date=2020-10-29 |archive-date=2022-03-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319043202/https://books.google.com/books?id=lCwBWk5LcAMC&q=Vach%C3%A9+que+je+dois+le+plus&pg=PA552 |url-status=live }}</ref> Vaché committed [[suicide]] when aged 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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.andrebreton.fr/work/56600100013611|title=Lettres de guerre|last=Vaché|first=Jacques|date=1949|others=André Breton|edition=2ème publication|access-date=2019-06-10|archive-date=2020-02-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200201144448/https://www.andrebreton.fr/work/56600100013611|url-status=live}}</ref>

Breton married his first wife, Simone Kahn, on 15 September 1921. The couple relocated to rue Fontaine {{abbr|No.|Number}} 42 in [[Paris]] on 1 January 1922. The apartment on rue Fontaine (in the [[Quartier Pigalle|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.<ref>Reviewing Mark Polizzotti's ''Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton'' Douglas F. Smith called him, "[a] cynical atheist, the poet, critic, and artist harbored an irrepressible streak of romanticism."</ref><ref>"To speak of God, to think of God, is in every respect to show what one is made of.... I have always wagered against God and I regard the little that I have won in this world as simply the outcome of this bet. However paltry may have been the stake (my life) I am conscious of having won to the full. Everything that is doddering, squint-eyed, vile, polluted and grotesque is summoned up for me in that one word: God!" - André Breton, taking from a footnote from his book, ''Surrealism and Painting''. [http://www.poemhunter.com/andre-breton/quotations/page-2/?search= Quotations by the poet: Andre Breton] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212112738/https://www.poemhunter.com/andre-breton/quotations/page-2/?search= |date=2020-02-12 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gilson |first=Étienne |title=Linguistics and philosophy: an essay on the philosophical constants of language |year=1988 |publisher=University of Notre Dame Press |isbn=978-0-268-01284-7 |page=98 |quote=Breton professed to be an atheist...}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Browder |first=Clifford |title=André Breton: Arbiter of Surrealism |year=1967 |publisher=Droz |page=133 |quote=Again, the atheist Breton's predilection for ideas of blasphemy and profanation, as well as for the "demonic" word noir, contained a hint of Satanism and alliance with infernal powers.}}</ref>

===From Dada to Surrealism===
Breton launched the review ''[[Littérature]]'' in 1919, with [[Louis Aragon]] and [[Philippe Soupault]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100571740|title=Lost Profiles, Memoirs of Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism|website=www.citylights.com|language=EN|access-date=2019-06-11|archive-date=2019-12-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220151806/http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100571740|url-status=live}}</ref> He also associated with [[Dada]]ist [[Tristan Tzara]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theartstory.org/artist-tzara-tristan.htm|title=Tristan Tzara Art, Bio, Ideas|website=The Art Story|access-date=2019-06-11|archive-date=2019-04-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421135411/https://www.theartstory.org/artist-tzara-tristan.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

In ''[[Les Champs Magnétiques]]''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100772781|title=Les Champs magnétiques (André Breton)|website=www.andrebreton.fr|lang=fr|access-date=2021-07-09|archive-date=2022-03-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319043202/https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100772781|url-status=live}}</ref> (''The Magnetic Fields''), a collaboration with Soupault, he implemented the principle of [[Surrealist automatism|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]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://faqonespionage.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/bureau-of-surrealist-research/|title=Bureau of Surrealist Research|last=ramalhodiogo|date=2012-07-24|website=Frequently Asked Questions|language=en|access-date=2019-06-11|archive-date=2019-12-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221084425/https://faqonespionage.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/bureau-of-surrealist-research/|url-status=live}}</ref> 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 (novel)|Nadja]]'', a novel about his imaginative encounter with a woman who later becomes mentally ill, was published in 1928. <!--Breton celebrated the concept of Mad Love, and many women joined the surrealist group over the years. [[Toyen]] was a good friend. - awkward combination in more than one way.--> Due to the [[Great Depression|economic depression]], he had to sell his art collection and rebuilt it later.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Revolution of the mind : the life of André Breton|last=Polizzotti, Mark.|date=2009|publisher=Black Widow Press|isbn=9780979513787|edition=1st Black Widow Press ed., rev. & updated|location=Boston, Mass.|oclc=221148942}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

In December 1929, Breton published the ''Second manifeste du surréalisme'' (''Second manifesto of surrealism''), which contained an oft-quoted declaration for which many, including [[Albert Camus]], reproached Breton: "The simplest surrealist act consists, with revolvers in hand, of descending into the street and shooting at random, as much as possible, into the crowd".<ref>André Breton, ''Œuvres complètes – I'', Gallimard, [[Bibliothèque de la Pléiade]], p. 782–783.</ref><ref>Marguerite Bonnet notes that a very similar phrase already appeared in an article published in 1925 in number 2 of ''La Révolution surréaliste'' and that it had not, in its time, caught the attention. Marguerite Bonnet, ''André Breton, naissance du surréalisme'', Librairie José Corti, Paris, 1975, p. 64–65.</ref>

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.<ref name="MP2009">{{cite book |last=Polizzotti |first=Mark |title= Revolution of the Mind |date=2009 |edition=Revised and updated |orig-year=First published 1995 |publisher=First Black Widow Press |location=Boston, MA |isbn=978-0-9795137-8-7}}</ref>{{rp|299–302}} 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.<ref>Pascale Cassuto-Roux, "Appels aux meurtres surréalistes", in: Florence Quinche and Antonio Rodriguez (ed.), ''Quelle éthique pour la littérature ?'', Labor et Fides, 2007, p. 65–66, ([https://books.google.com/books?id=IaT537ci3xcC&pg=PA66 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160129072147/https://books.google.be/books?id=IaT537ci3xcC&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66 |date=2016-01-29 }}), which refers, for the texts of the pamphlet ''Un Cadavre'', to ''Tracts surréalistes et déclarations collectives'' (1922-1969), t. I (1922-1939), Le Terrain Vague, Éric Losfeld editor, 1980, p. 133–134 and 140–142.</ref>

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".<ref>André Breton, ''Œuvres complètes – I'', Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, p. 783. Quoted by Pascale Cassuto-Roux, "Appels aux meurtres surréalistes", in: Florence Quinche and Antonio Rodriguez (ed.), ''Quelle éthique pour la littérature ?'', Labor et Fides, 2007, p. 66, [https://books.google.com/books?id=IaT537ci3xcC&pg=PA66 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160129072147/https://books.google.be/books?id=IaT537ci3xcC&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66 |date=2016-01-29 }}.</ref>

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 Ehrenburg — along with all fellow surrealists — in a pamphlet which said, among other things, that surrealists shunned work, favouring [[Social parasitism (offense)|parasitism]], and that they endorsed "[[masturbation|onanism]], [[pederasty]], [[Sexual fetishism|fetishism]], [[exhibitionism]], and even [[sodomy]]". Breton slapped Ehrenburg several times on the street, which resulted in surrealists being expelled from the Congress.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Abdelhadi |first1=Jason |title=Breton vs Ehrenburg: A Détournement on the Boulevard Montparnasse |url=https://peculiarmormyrid.com/breton-vs-ehrenburg/ |website=Peculiar Mormyrid |date=22 March 2016 |publisher=peculiarmormyrid.com |access-date=24 March 2024}}</ref> René Crevel, who according to [[Salvador Dalí]] was "the only serious [[communist]] among surrealists",<ref name="Afterword">{{cite book|title=Le Clavecin de Diderot, Afterword|last=Crevel|first=René|pages=161}}</ref> was isolated from Breton and other surrealists, who were unhappy with Crevel because of his [[bisexuality]] and annoyed with communists in general.<ref name=":1" />

In 1938, Breton accepted a cultural commission from the French government to travel to [[Mexico]]. After a conference at the [[National Autonomous University of Mexico]] about surrealism, Breton stated after getting lost in [[Mexico City]] (as no one was waiting for him at the airport) "I don't know why I came here. Mexico is the most surrealist country in the world."

[[File:Trotsky_and_Breton_(1938).jpg|thumb|right|Trotsky and Breton in Mexico 1938]]

However, visiting Mexico provided the opportunity to meet [[Leon Trotsky]]. Breton and other surrealists traveled via a long boat ride from Patzcuaro to the town of [[Erongarícuaro]]. [[Diego Rivera]] and [[Frida Kahlo]] were among the visitors to the hidden community of intellectuals and artists. Together, Breton and Trotsky wrote the ''[[Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art]]'' (published under the names of Breton and Diego Rivera) calling for "complete freedom of art", which was becoming increasingly difficult with the world situation of the time.

===World War II and exile===
Breton was again in the medical corps of the [[French Army]] at the start of [[World War II]]. The [[Vichy France|Vichy]] government banned his writings as "the very negation of the [[Révolution nationale|national revolution]]"<ref name="rosemont">Franklin Rosemont ''André Breton and the First Principles of Surrealism'', 1978, {{ISBN|0-904383-89-X}}.</ref> and Breton escaped, with the help of the American [[Varian Fry]] and [[Hiram Bingham IV|Hiram "Harry" Bingham IV]], to the [[United States]] and the [[Caribbean]] during 1941.<ref>{{cite news |last=Schiffrin |first=Anya |date=2019-10-03 |title=How Varian Fry Helped My Family Escape the Nazis |url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/10/03/how-varian-fry-helped-my-family-escape-the-nazis/ |work=[[The New York Review of Books|NYR Daily]] |access-date=2020-07-11 |archive-date=2020-07-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200711175257/https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/10/03/how-varian-fry-helped-my-family-escape-the-nazis/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/americans-and-the-holocaust/personal-story/varian-fry |title=Emergency Escape: Vatican Fry |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=<!--Not stated--> |website=Americans and the Holocaust |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |access-date=2020-07-11 |archive-date=2020-07-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726012358/https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/americans-and-the-holocaust/personal-story/varian-fry |url-status=live }}</ref> He emigrated to [[New York City]] and lived there for a few years.<ref name="André Breton"/> In 1942, Breton organized a groundbreaking surrealist exhibition at [[Yale University]].<ref name="André Breton"/>

In 1942,<ref>André Breton, ''Fata Morgana''. Buenos Aires: Éditions des lettres françaises, Sur, 1942.</ref> Breton collaborated with artist [[Wifredo Lam]] on the publication of Breton's poem "Fata Morgana", which was illustrated by Lam.

Breton got to know [[Martinique|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 Breton|Elisa Bindhoff]], the [[Chile]]an woman who would become his third wife.<ref name=":1" />

In 1944, he and Elisa traveled to the [[Gaspé Peninsula]] in [[Quebec|Québec]], where he wrote ''Arcane 17'', a book which expresses his fears of World War II, describes the marvels of the [[Percé Rock]] and the extreme northeastern part of North America, and celebrates his new romance with Elisa.<ref name=":1" />

During his visit to [[Haiti]] in 1945–46, he sought to connect surrealist politics and [[Automatism (law)|automatist]] practices with the legacies of the [[Haitian Revolution]] and the ritual practices of [[Haitian Vodou|Vodou]] possession. Recent developments in Haitian painting were central to his efforts, as can be seen from a comment that Breton left in the visitors' book at the [[Centre d'Art]] in [[Port-au-Prince]]: "Haitian painting will drink the blood of the phoenix. And, with the epaulets of [[Jean-Jacques Dessalines|[Jean-Jacques] Dessalines]], it will ventilate the world." Breton was specifically referring to the work of painter and Vodou priest [[Hector Hyppolite]], whom he identified as the first artist to directly depict Vodou scenes and the lwa (Vodou deities), as opposed to hiding them in [[chromolithography|chromolithographs]] of Catholic saints or invoking them through impermanent vevé (abstracted forms drawn with powder during rituals). Breton's writings on Hyppolite were undeniably central to the artist's international status from the late 1940s on, but the surrealist readily admitted that his understanding of Hyppolite's art was inhibited by their lack of a common language. Returning to France with multiple paintings by Hyppolite, Breton integrated this artwork into the increased surrealist focus on the occult, myth, and magic.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Geis |first=T. |date=2015 |title=Myth, History and Repetition: André Breton and Vodou in Haiti |journal=South Central Review |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages= 56–75|doi=10.1353/scr.2015.0010 |s2cid=143481322 }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://jacobin.com/2022/07/andre-breton-haiti-revolution-communists-surrealism |title=The Founder of Surrealism Helped Inspire a Revolution in Haiti |last=Löwy |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Löwy|date=19 July 2022 |website=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]]|access-date=2022-07-21}}</ref>

===Later life===
[[File:AndreBreton.jpg|thumb|150px|Breton in the 1960s]]
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.<ref name=":1" />

Breton consistently supported the francophone [[Anarchist Federation (France)|Anarchist Federation]] and he continued to offer his solidarity after the [[Platformism|Platformists]] around founder and Secretary General [[Georges Fontenis]] transformed the FA into the [[Fédération communiste libertaire]] (FCL).<ref name=":1" />

André Breton died at the age of 70 in 1966, and was buried in the [[Cimetière des Batignolles]] in Paris.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.surrealismart.org/history/andre-breton.html |title=André Breton {{!}} Father of Surrealism |last=Art |first=Surrealism |website=www.surrealismart.org |access-date=2018-01-24 |archive-date=2018-01-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180116020458/http://www.surrealismart.org/history/andre-breton.html |url-status=live }}</ref>