André Breton is widely known as the founder and prominent figure of the Surrealist movement in France. His manifestos and essays, including the extended novelistic essay Nadja (1928; translated, 1960), articulate the literary and philosophical stance of the Surrealists. His earliest writings, however, are poems, and poetic expression holds a pivotal place in conceptions of the Surreal. Breton and his colleagues often cited the statement of the Comte de Lautréamont (pseudonym of Isidore Lucien Ducasse) that poetry must be made by all, and to this remark Breton added that it must also be heard by all. Indeed, throughout his life Breton attempted to embody his aesthetic notions in the poems he wrote.

Breton was born at Tinchebray (Orne) on 19 February 1896 to Louis Breton and Marguerite Breton. His family moved to the industrial suburb of Paris when he was four years old. He was first sent to school...