Paul Éluard

Paul Éluard (1895–1952) was a French poet born in Saint-Denis whose work, across more than three decades, made him one of the central figures of Surrealism and one of the most widely read lyric poets of the twentieth century. Born Eugène Emile Paul Grindel, he served in the First World War, an experience that marked his early poetry, before encountering the Dadaists and, from 1924, joining Breton's Surrealist group. He was among the few Surrealists to maintain a consistent lyric practice rooted in love and the image of the beloved across all stages of his career: his relationships with Gala (later Dalí's wife and muse), then with Nusch Éluard, whose death in 1946 devastated him, and finally with Dominique, are inscribed in successive waves of his writing.

Key collections include Capitale de la douleur (1926), L'Amour la poésie (1929), and Les yeux fertiles (1936). During the Resistance, he wrote and distributed clandestinely, most notably Poésie et Vérité (1942), which contained the poem Liberté — among the most celebrated poems of the French language — circulated by the Allies and dropped over Occupied France. He joined the French Communist Party in 1942 and remained a committed member until his death. He maintained lifelong friendships with artists including Picasso, Ernst, Miró, and Man Ray, and contributed extensively to Surrealist visual culture through his collaborative work and critical writing.

His poetry is held in the French cultural canon and has been translated into dozens of languages.