André Breton

André Breton
André Breton in 1924
Born	(1896-02-19)19 February 1896 Tinchebray, Orne, France
Died	28 September 1966(1966-09-28) (aged 70) Paris, France
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	French
Period	20th century
Genre	Histories, poetry, essays
Literary movement	Surrealism
Notable works	Surrealist Manifesto
Spouse	Simone Kahn (m. 1921; div. 1931) Jacqueline Lamba (m. 1934; div. 1943) Elisa Breton (m. 1945; his death 1966)
Children	Aube Breton

Surrealist Manifesto
Surrealist cinema
Surrealist music
Surrealist techniques
Birmingham Surrealists

André Breton (French: [ɑ̃dʁe bʁətɔ̃]; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer, poet, and anti-fascist. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto (Manifeste du surréalisme) of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism".

Born to a family of modest means in Tinchebray (Orne) in Normandy, he studied medicine and psychiatry. During World War I he worked in a neurological ward in Nantes, where he met the devotee of Alfred Jarry, Jacques Vaché, whose anti-social attitude and disdain for established artistic tradition influenced Breton considerably. Vaché committed suicide at age 24, 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. He was an atheist.