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Eluard Paul 1895 - 1952 (57)

There is another world, and it is in this one.


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selected poems



Paul Eluard (December 14, 1895 - November 18, 1952) was a French poet, one of the most important representatives of surrealism. He was born in Saint-Denis, near Paris, to a wealthy bourgeois family. In 1912 he contracted tuberculosis and was forced to drop out of school, spending two years in a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland. At that time he began to write poems which he published in 1914 at his own expense. During World War I he was deployed as an auxiliary staff but at his request was transferred to a combat unit. He fell ill and was sent back. In 1917 he married the Russian Gala, who after their separation became Dali's companion and muse. From his experiences in the war, Eluard wrote two collections of poems with anti-war themes (Duty and Anxiety, 1917- Poems for Peace, 1918). By 1920 he would complete two more collections of poetry and become known in literary circles.

In 1924, together with Breton and Aragon, they became the pioneers of surrealism and in the following years he published not only poems but also texts on art and painting. In 1926 he joined the Communist Party from which he would leave, along with Breton, in 1933. He became active in the resistance during the German occupation and wrote a collection of resistance poems while in 1946 he was shocked by the sudden death of his second wife. In the following years he took part in many events for world peace and traveled throughout Europe. He died in 1952, of a heart attack.