FREE ESSAY ON LOUIS ARAGON

LOUIS ARAGON

Louis Aragon met Andre Breton while studying military medicine during World War 1. In
1919, along with Breton and Philippe Soupault, he founded the important review
Litterature. An active participant in the French Dada movement, and later one of the
principal members of the Surrealist group, he broke with them in 1931 and joined the
Communist Party, to which he remained closely attached. Aragon was taken prisoner by the
Germans during World War 2, escaped to the Unoccupied Zone, and became one of the leading
figures in the Resistance. Much of his finest poetry was written during this time. Louis
Aragon was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1954 and for many years served as director of
Les Lettres francaises. In addition to his abundant output as a poet, Aragon has written
novels, essays, a long study of Matisse, a translation of Lewis Carroll and journalism.
Many of his books have been translated into English but may be hard to find.