Philippe Soupault (2 August 1897 – 12 March 1990) was a French writer and poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He was active in

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

ism and later was instrumental in founding the

Surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

movement with

André Breton André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...

. Soupault initiated the periodical '' Littérature'' together with writers Breton and

Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (; 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the Surrealism, surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littératur ...

in Paris in 1919, which, for many, marks the beginnings of Surrealism. The first book of

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged sp ...

, '' Les Champs magnétiques'' (1920), was co-authored by Soupault and Breton.

Biography

In 1922 he was asked to reinvent the literary magazine '' Les Écrits nouveaux'', for which he also created an editorial board. In 1927 Soupault, with the help of his then wife Marie-Louise, translated

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

's '' Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' into French. The next year, Soupault authored a monograph on Blake, arguing the poet was a "genius" whose work anticipated the Surrealist movement in literature. In 1933 at a reception at the Soviet Embassy in Paris, he met Ré Richter, and they decided to do some travel reportage together. Ré Richter's photographs, taken with her 6x6 Rolleiflex, were to be published alongside Philippe Soupault's literary texts. In the following years, the two of them continued in the same vein, travelling to Germany, Switzerland, England, Scandinavia and Tunisia. They married in 1937 and separated after the end of the war; he moved back to Europe, and she remained in New York for some time. Soupault directed Radio Tunis from 1937 until 1940, when he was arrested by the pro-Vichy regime. After imprisonment by the Nazis in Tunis during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he and his wife fled to

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

. From there, they traveled to the United States. He took a teaching position at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...

, but returned subsequently to France in October 1945. His works include large volumes of poetry such as ''Aquarium'' (1917) and ''Rose des vents'' (Compass Card) (1919), and the novel ''Les Dernières Nuits de Paris'' (1928; translated as ''Last Nights of Paris'', 1929). In 1957, he wrote the libretto for

Germaine Tailleferre Germaine Tailleferre (; born Marcelle Germaine Taillefesse; 19 April 18927 November 1983) was a French composer and the only female member of the group of composers known as ''Les Six''. Biography Marcelle Germaine Taillefesse was born at Saint- ...

's opera ''La Petite Sirène'', based on

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...

's tale "

The Little Mermaid "The Little Mermaid" (), sometimes translated in English as "The Little Sea Maid", is a fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. Originally published in 1837 as part of a collection of fairy tales for children, the story foll ...

". The work was broadcast by French Radio National in 1959.

Legacy

In 1990, the year Soupault died, Serbian rock band Bjesovi recorded their version of his poem ''Georgia'' in Serbian. Soupault's short story "Death of Nick Carter" was translated by Robin Walz in 2007, and published in issue 24 of the ''

McSweeney's McSweeney's Publishing is an American nonprofit publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998 and headquartered in San Francisco. The executive director is Amanda Uhle. McSweeney's first publication was the literary journal'' Timothy McSw ...

Quarterly''. In 2016,

City Lights Bookstore City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected ...

published a book of his essays entitled ''Lost Profiles: Memoirs of Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism'' as translated by

Alan Bernheimer Alan Bernheimer (born 1948 in New York City) is an United States poetry, American poet, often associated with the San Francisco Language poets and the New York School (art), New York School poets. Biography He attended Horace Mann School, and gra ...

Selected bibliography

Poetry

* ''Aquarium'' (1917) * ''Rose des vents'' (1919) * '' Les Champs magnétiques'' with

(1919) * ''Westwego'' (1922) * ''Georgia'' (1926) * ''Il y a un océan'' (1936) * ''Ode to the Bombed London / Odes à Londres bombardée'' (1944). Bilingual edition, trans. Norman Cameron * ''Odes 1943-1946'' (1946) * ''L’Arme secrète'' (1946) * ''Message de l'île déserte (1942-1944)'' (1947) * ''Chansons'' (1949) * ''Sans phrases'' (1953) * ''Arc-en-ciel'' (1979) * ''Poèmes retrouvés 1918-1981'' (1982) * ''Poèmes et Poésies'' (1987)

Novels and novellas

* ''Le Bon Apôtre'' (1923) * ''Les Frères Durandeau'' (1924) * ''Voyage d'Horace Pirouelle'' (1925). ''The Voyage of Horace Pirouelle'', trans. Justin Vicari (Wakefield Press, 2023) * ''Le Nègre'' (1927) * ''Les Dernières Nuits de Paris'' (1928). ''Last Nights of Paris'', trans.

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. His '' Spring and All'' (1923) was written in the wake of T. S. Eliot's '' The Waste Land'' (1922). ...

(Macaulay Company, 1929) * ''Le Grand Homme'' (1929) * ''Les Moribonds'' (1934)

Essays

* ''William Blake'' (1928). ''William Blake'', trans. J. Lewis May (John Lane, 1928) * ''Profils perdus'' (1963). ''Lost Profiles: Memoirs of Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism'', trans. Alan Bernheimer (

City Lights ''City Lights'' is a 1931 American synchronized sound film, sound romance film, romantic comedy drama, comedy-drama film written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a ...

, 2016)

Autobiographical writings

* ''L’Invitation au suicide'' (1921) * ''Le Temps des assassins'' (1945). ''Age of Assassins: The Story of Prisoner No. 1234'', trans. Hannah Josephson (Knopf, 1946) * ''Mémoires de l'oubli (1914-1923)'' (1981) * ''Mémoires de l'oubli (1923-1926)'' (1986) * ''Mémoires de l'oubli (1927-1933)'' (1997)

Compilations in English

* ''I'm Lying: Selected Translations of Philippe Soupault'', trans. Paulette Schmidt (Lost Roads, 1985)

References

Sources *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soupault, Philippe 1897 births 1990 deaths People from Chaville Dada French surrealist writers Surrealist poets 20th-century French poets 20th-century French novelists French critics French opera librettists Swarthmore College faculty French male poets French male novelists French male short story writers French short story writers French male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century French dramatists and playwrights 20th-century French short story writers 20th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers