Paul Eluard

Eluard was one of the important poets of the twentieth century. A founder of Surrealism and later, a militant communist, his works comment upon the two World Wars and the political and social ideals of the previous century. Eluard, born Eugène Grindel, was the son of a bookkeeper and dressmaker. His first two volumes of poetry were the Premiers poémes (1913) and the Dialogues des inutiles (1914). When he was 16, he entered a Swiss sanatorium to be treated for tuberculosis. He was soon well enough to join the French army and fight in World War I, where he was severely injured...