|
|
Paul Éluard was the nom de plume of Eugène Grindel (December 14, 1895 – November 18, 1952), a French poet who was active in the Dada and Surrealist movements.
Éluard was born in Saint-Denis, just outside of Paris.
After a happy childhood, he contracted tuberculosis at 16 years old and halted his studies. In the Swiss sanatorium of Davos, he met Gala, born Helena Deluvina Diarkinoff, whom he married in 1917. Together they had a daughter named Cecile.
About this time he wrote his first poems. He was particularly inspired by Walt Whitman. In 1918, Jean Paulhan discovered him and introduced him to André Breton and Louis Aragon. This was his introduction to the Dada movement.
After a marital crisis, he travelled, returning to France in 1924. His poems of this time reflect his difficulties during the period, in which he had another bout of tuberculosis and separated from Gala when she left him for Salvador Dalí.
In 1934, he married Nusch, (Maria Benz) a model of friends Man Ray and Pablo Picasso, who was considered somewhat of a mascot of the Surrealist movement. During World War II, he was involved in the French Resistance. He battled also with his poems, such as his 1942 poem Liberty. His work was quite militant, yet simple.
After the premature death of Nusch, he met his last love, Dominique, and dedicated his work The Phoenix to her.
Paul Éluard died from a heart attack in November 1952. He is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
The poems in The Capital of Pain (La Capitale de la Douleur) inspired the 1965 Jean-Luc Godard film Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution.
External links
- 24 poems in English translation (http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/freeman/Eluard.htm)
- Works not in translation (http://www.geocities.com/timilie/oeuvre.html)
- Short biography and selected works (http://www.kalin.lm.com/eluard.html)cs:Paul Eluard