André Breton (February 18, 1896 – September 28,
1966) was a French writer, poet, and surrealist
theorist. His writings include the Surrealist
Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism
as pure psychic automatism.

Born into modest origins 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 spiritual son of
Alfred Jarry, Jacques Vaché, a young man who lived
his life like a work of art and committed suicide
at age 24. Jacques Vaché had considerable
influence on Breton, even though all that remains
are some war letters.

In 1919, Breton founded the review Littérature
with Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault. He also
connected with Dadaist Tristan Tzara.

In The Magnetic Fields (Les Champs Magnétiques), a
collaboration with Soupault, he put the principle
of automatic writing into practice. He published
the Surrealist Manifesto in 1924, and was editor
of La Révolution surréaliste from 1924. A group
coalesced around him — Philippe Soupault, Louis
Aragon, Paul Éluard, René Crevel, Michel Leiris,
and Robert Desnos.

Anxious to combine the changing of life of Rimbaud
with the transforming of the world of Marx, Breton
joined the Communist Party in 1927, from which he
was expelled in 1933.

Under his influence, surrealism became a European
movement that touched all domains of art, and
called into question the cause of human
understanding and the types of views given to
things and events.

Dissatisfied with the Vichy government, Breton
sought refuge in the United States in 1941. Breton
returned to Paris in 1946, where he continued,
until his death, to foster a second group of
surrealists in the form of expositions or reviews
(La Brèche, 1961-1965).

His works include a novel, Nadja (1928).

He married three times

    * His first wife was the former Simone Kahn.
    * His second wife was the former Jacqueline
Lamba.
    * His third wife was the former Elisa Claro.

André Breton died in 1966 and was interred in the
Cimetière des Batignolles in Par