Robert Desnos
| Robert Desnos | |
|---|---|
Robert Desnos in 1924
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| Born |
4 July 1900 Paris, France |
| Died | 8 June 1945 (aged 44) Theresienstadt concentration camp, Czechoslovakia |
| Nationality | French |
| Known for | Poetry |
Robert Desnos (French: [dɛsnɔs]; 4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945), was a French surrealist poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day.
Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed dealer in game and poultry at the Halles market. Other sources state Desnos was the son of a Parisien café owner. Desnos attended commercial college, and started work as a clerk. He also worked as an amanuensis for journalist Jean de Bonnefon. After that he worked as a literary columnist for the newspaper Paris-Soir.
The first poems by Desnos to appear in print were published in 1917 in La Tribune des Jeunes (Platform for Youth) and in 1919 in the avant-garde review, Le Trait d’union (Hyphen), and also the same year in the Dadaist magazine Littérature. In 1922, he published his first book, a collection of surrealistic aphorisms, with the title Rrose Sélavy (based upon the name (pseudonym) of the popular French artist Marcel Duchamp).
In 1919, he met the poet Benjamin Péret who introduced him to the Paris Dada group and André Breton, with whom he soon became friends. While working as a literary columnist for Paris-Soir, Desnos was an active member of the Surrealist group and developed a particular talent for automatic writing. He, together with writers such as Louis Aragon and Paul Éluard, would form the literary vanguard of surrealism. André Breton included two photographs of Desnos sleeping in his surrealist novel Nadja. Although he was praised by Breton in his 1924 Manifeste du Surréalisme for being the movement's "prophet", Desnos disagreed with Surrealism's involvement in communist politics, which caused a rift between him and Breton. Desnos continued work as a columnist.
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