André Breton - Wikipedia

On September 28, 1966, André Breton, French writer, poet, and the founder of Surrealism, died at the age of 70. From the article:

"André Breton (French: [ɑ̃dʁe bʁətɔ̃]; 18 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer, poet, and anti-fascist. He is known best as the co-founder, leader, principal theorist and chief apologist of Surrealism.[1] His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto (Manifeste du surréalisme) of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism".[2]

Biography Edit
Born to a family of modest means in Tinchebray (Orne) in Normandy, France. Breton attended medical school where he developed a particular interest in mental illness.[3] His education was interrupted when he was drafted for World War I.[3]

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.[4] 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.[citation needed]

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.[5][6][7][8]"