Philippe Soupault

Philippe Soupault (2 August 1897 – 12 March 1990) was a French writer and poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He took an active role in the Dadaist movement and later founded the Surrealist movement with André Breton. Soupault founded the periodical "Littérature" together with the writers Breton and Louis Aragon in Paris 1919, which, for many, dates the beginnings of Surrealism [Montagu, J. (2002). The Surrealists. Revolutionaries in Art and Writing 1919-35. London: Tate Publishing] . The first book of automatic writing, "Les champs magnétiques" (1920), was co-authored by Soupault and Breton. After imprisonment by the Nazis in World War II, Soupault traveled to the United States but subsequently returned to France. His works include such large volumes of poetry as "Aquarium" (1917) and "Rose des vents" [compass card] (1920) and the novel "Les Dernières Nuits de Paris" (1928; tr. Last Nights of Paris, 1929).

In 1957, he wrote the libretto for Germaine Tailleferre's Opera "La Petite Sirène", based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale "The Little Mermaid". The work was broadcast by French Radio National in 1959.

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