Philippe Soupault facts for kids
Philippe Soupault (born August 2, 1897 – died March 12, 1990) was a French writer, poet, and critic. He was important in starting two big art movements: Dadaism and Surrealism.
Dadaism was an art movement that started during World War I. Artists in this movement used humor and nonsense to protest against war and traditional art. Surrealism came after Dadaism and focused on dreams, imagination, and the unconscious mind.
In 1919, Soupault helped create a magazine called Littérature in Paris with other writers like André Breton and Louis Aragon. Many people think this magazine was the beginning of Surrealism. Soupault and Breton also wrote the first book of "automatic writing" together, called Les Champs magnétiques (1920). Automatic writing is a way of writing where you try to let your thoughts flow freely without planning, almost like dreaming on paper.
Life and Travels
In 1922, Philippe Soupault was asked to help create a new version of a literary magazine called Les Écrits nouveaux. He also helped choose the articles for it.
A few years later, in 1927, Soupault and his wife at the time, Marie-Louise, translated a famous book of poems by William Blake into French. Blake was an English poet and artist. The next year, Soupault wrote a book about Blake, saying he was a "genius" whose ideas were similar to the Surrealist movement.
In 1933, Soupault met Ré Richter, a photographer, in Paris. They decided to travel together and create travel stories with photos. Ré Richter took pictures with her camera, and Philippe Soupault wrote the text. They traveled to many places, including Germany, Switzerland, England, Scandinavia, and Tunisia. They got married in 1937.
World War II and Beyond
From 1937 to 1940, Soupault was in charge of Radio Tunis in Tunisia. During World War II, he was arrested by the government in power at the time. After being held by the Nazis in Tunis, he and his wife escaped to Algiers. From there, they traveled to the United States.
In the U.S., Soupault taught at Swarthmore College. He returned to France in October 1945 after the war ended. He and Ré Soupault separated after the war.
Philippe Soupault wrote many books of poetry, like Aquarium (1917) and Rose des vents (1920). He also wrote novels, including Les Dernières Nuits de Paris (1928), which means Last Nights of Paris.
In 1957, he wrote the story for an opera called La Petite Sirène (The Little Mermaid). It was based on the famous fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. French radio broadcast the opera in 1959.
His Legacy
Philippe Soupault passed away in 1990. In the same year, a rock band from Serbia called Bjesovi recorded their own version of his poem Georgia in the Serbian language.
In 2007, one of Soupault's short stories, "Death of Nick Carter," was translated into English. Later, in 2016, a bookstore called City Lights Bookstore published a book of his essays. The book was titled Lost Profiles: Memoirs of Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism and was translated by Alan Bernheimer.
Main Works
- Aquarium (1917)
- Rose des vents (1919)
- Les Champs magnétiques (1919, with A. Breton)
- Westwego (1922)
- Le Bon Apôtre (1923, novel)
- Les Frères Durandeau (1924, novel)
- Georgia (1926)
- Le Nègre (1927, novel)
- Les Dernières Nuits de Paris (1928, novel)
- Le Grand Homme (1929, novel)
- Les Moribonds (1934, autobiographical novel)
- Il y a un océan (1936)
- Odes à Londres bombardée (1944)
- Le Temps des assassins (1945, autobiography sequel)
- Odes (1946)
- L’Arme secrète (1946)
- Message de l'île déserte (1947)
- Chansons (1949)
- Sans phrases (1953)
- Profils perdus (1963)
- Lost Profiles: Memoirs of Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism. Translated by Alan Bernheimer. (City Lights Publishers), 2016 ISBN: 9780872867277
- Arc-en-ciel (1979)
- Mémoires de l’oubli (1981, autobiography)
- Poèmes retrouvés (1982)
See also
In Spanish: Philippe Soupault para niños
