RobertDesnos

 1900 b. July 4th in Paris. Son of a cafe owner. 
    French surrealist Poet and Writer.
    Desnos attended commercial college, and started work as a clerk. After that  
    he worked as a literary columnist for the newspaper Paris-Soir.


 ==Early Life==
 ==1920's==
 ==1930's==
 ==1940's==

 ==Early Life=
 1916 He had begun to transcribe his dreams.

 1917 First poems published in La Tribune des Jeunes (Youth's Tribune).

 1919 Published in the avant-garde review, ``Le Trait d’union´´ (The hyphen), 
    and the Dadaist magazine  Litterature. 
    Met Benjamin Peret who introduced him to the Paris Dada group and also to
    Andre Breton with whom he soon became a friend.

 ==1920's==
 1920 March to May 1921 Military service in France.

 1921 May to January 1922 in Morocco with the 13th. Regiment of Algerian 
    artillery. 
    On leave he met Andre Breton and Tristan Tzara, but had no real 
    relations with the future surrealist group except through letters from 
    Benjamin Peret. 
    Jacques Doucet was a Patron.

 1922 Published his first book Rose Selavy (based upon the name (pseudonym) 
    of Marcel Duchamp). 
    Brief and unsatisfactory affair with Therese Maure
    Together with writers Louis Aragon and Paul Eluard, formed the 
    literary vanguard of surrealism. 
    Sept; Initiates hypnotic sleep experiments together with Rene Crevel 
    in Andre Breton's apartment.
    Andre Breton included two photographs of Desnos sleeping in his  novel Nadja.
    Painting At The Rendezvous of Friends by Max Ernst.
    Neighbour and friends with Georges Neveux.

 1923 
     Associated with anarchist movements of Victor Serge and Rirette Maitrejean ~>.

 1924 Photographed with Jacques Baron, Raymond Queneau, Andre Breton, 
    Jacques-Andre Boiffard, Giorgio de Chirico, Roger Vitrac, Paul Eluard, 
    Philippe Soupault, Louis Aragon, Pierre Naville, Simone Collinet-Breton, 
    Max Morise and Marie-Louise Soupault.
    Praised by Andre Breton in his Manifeste du Surrealisme for being 
    the movement's "prophet".
    He disagreed with Surrealism's involvement in communist politics, which 
    caused a rift between him and Breton. 
    Desnos continued work as a columnist.
    Published novel: Deuil pour deuil.
    Starts passionate affair with Yvonne George ->.
    He introduced her to Opium as well as writing several poems for her, and also the 
    surrealist novel La liberte ou l'amour!.

 1925 Signed the Declaration of January 27 1925.
    May; With Philippe Soupault, Paul Eluard and Roger Vitrac storms 
    a lecture by Robert Aron -> where Paul Eluard gets beaten up. 
    June; Part of the riot at the Saint-Pol Roux? banquet.

 1926 Composed The Night of Loveless Nights.

 1927 Wrote ''Breton's friendship is one of the moral honours 
    of our time''.
    Signs Manifesto Hands Off Love in defense of Charlie Chaplin.
    Publishes La Liberte ou L'amour.

 1928 Visited Cuba.
    Published play La Place De La' Etoile, (1928; revised 1944) 
    Film script, L' Etoile de mer; directed by Man Ray.

 1929 Left the Surrealist Group. 
    Joined Georges Bataille and "Documents" as one of the authors to     sign 
    Un Cadavre (A cadaver). 
    Wrote "Modern Imagery", "Avant-garde Cinema" (1929, issue 7).

 ==1930's==
 1930 "Pygmalion and the Sphinx" (issue 1), and Sergei Eisenstein?, 
    the Soviet filmmaker, on his film titled The General Line (1930, issue 4).
    Desnos, Youki,Foujita, along with Foujita's cousin, set out on a 
    walking tour of the Burgundy region of France.
    Published his epic "The Night of Loveless Nights ~>.

 1932 Career in radio began in  with a show dedicated to Fantomas. 
    Became friends with Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Antonin Artaud 
    and John Dos Passos ->. 
    Published many critical reviews on jazz and cinema and became increasingly 
    involved in politics. 
    He wrote for many periodicals, including Litterature, La Revolution surrealiste, and Varietes. 
    Married Lucie Badoul,  nicknamed "Youki" ("rose snow") by Foujita 
    before leaving him for Desnos, whom she inspired to write "The Secret Book of Youki".

 1934 Youki Poesi

 ==1940's==
 1940 Active member of the French Resistance, often publishing under pseudonyms.

 1941 June, party at his apartment with Youki, Sonia Mosse, Georges Hugnet, 
    Paul Eluard and Nusch.

 1943 Published novel: Le vin est tire.

 1944 Feb. 22nd. arrested by the Gestapo and deported to the Nazi German 
    concentration camps of Auschwitz in occupied Poland, then Buchenwald, 
    Flossenburg in Germany.

 1945 Sent to Terezin Theresienstadt in occupied Czechoslovakia
    LAST POEM     Terezina Concentration Camp, May 1945
    I have dreamed so much of you,
    Walked so often, talked so often with you,
    Loved your shadow so much.
     Nothing is left me of you.
    Nothing is left of me but a shadow among shadows,
    A being a hundred times more shadowy than a shadow,
    A shadowy being who comes, and comes again, in your sunlit life.

 08 June d. Terezin in "Mala pevnost" which was an inner part of Terezin used 
   only for political prisoners; from typhoid, only weeks after the camp's liberation. 
   He is buried at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris


    Susan Griffin relates a story that exemplies Desnos surrealist spirit: 
    "One day Desnos and others were taken away from their barracks. The prisoners 
    rode on the back of a flatbed truck; they knew the truck was going to the gas 
    chamber; no one spoke. Soon they arrived and the guards ordered them off the 
    truck. When they began to move toward the gas chamber, suddenly Desnos 
    jumped out of line and grabbed the hand of the woman in front of him. 
    He was animated and he began to read her palm. The forecast was good: a long 
    life, many grandchildren, abundant joy. A person nearby offered his palm to 
    Desnos. Here, too, Desnos foresaw a long life filled with happiness and
    success. The other prisoners came to life, eagerly thrusting their palms 
    toward Desnos and, in each case, he foresaw long and joyous lives.
    The guards became visibly disoriented. Minutes before they were on a routine 
    mission the outcome of which seemed inevitable, but now they became tentative 
    in their movements. Desnos was so effective in creating a new reality that 
    the guards were unable to go through with the executions. They ordered 
    the prisoners back onto the truck and took them back to the barracks. Desnos 
    never was executed. Through the power of imagination, he saved his own life 
    and the lives of others."

    Posthumpus
    1974?, at the urging of Robert Desnos' widow, Joan Miro published 
    an “illustrated book” with Robert Desnos titled "Les pénalités de l'enfer ou 
    les nouvelles Hébrides" (The Penalties of Hell or The New Hebrides).

    Biographical Film La Belle Saison est Proche ->.

    Bibliography
    Robert Desnos, Surrealism, and the Marvelous in Everyday Life -> - Katharine Conley (2006). 

    See wiki -> and Poems ->.

    From Who Knew Who ->.
    Andre Masson
    Raymond Roussel
    Georges Limbour
    Darius Milhaud
    Arthur Honegger ->
    Joseph Kosma ->
    Jacques Prevert
    Brassai
    Edgard Varese ->
    Blaise Cendrars
    Jean-Louis Barrault ->
    Madeleine Renaud ->


    See Timeline