Louis Aragon Essay, Research Paper

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.