Andre Breton, poet, novelist, philosophical essayist, and art critic, is considered the father of surrealism. From World War I to the 1940s, Breton was at the forefront of the numerous avant-garde activities that centered in Paris. A prolific producer of pamphlets and manifestoes, he also edited two surrealist periodicals. Breton's influence on the art and literature of the twentieth century has been enormous. Picasso, Derain, Magritte, Giacometti, Cocteau, Eluard, and Gracq are among the many whose work was affected by his thinking. From 1927 to 1933, Breton was a member of the Communist party, but thereafter he opposed communism. At the time of Breton's death in 1966, his novel Nadja (1928), about a young dreamer in love with an ethereal heroine was reaching a new generation of theatre goers.
