Andre Breton

André Breton (1896–1966) was a French poet, writer, and theorist of Surrealism. After an early involvement with Dada, he founded the journal Littérature in 1919 with Philippe Soupault and Louis Aragon. The journal published parts of Les Champs magnétiques, written by Breton and Soupault and regarded as an early work of Surrealist writing. In 1924, Breton published the Manifesto of Surrealism, in which he defined Surrealism as an expression of psychic automatism. His best-known works also include the novel Nadja (1928) and the Second Manifesto of Surrealism (1930). During the First World War, he served in the medical corps and worked in a psychiatric hospital, where he became acquainted with the writings of Sigmund Freud.