Philippe Soupault

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Philippe Soupault (August 2, 1897 – March 12, 1990) was a French writer and poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He took an active role in the Dadaist movement and later founded the Surrealist movement with André Breton. The first book of automatic writing, Les champs magnétiques (1920), was co-authored by Soupault and Breton. After imprisonment by the Nazis in World War II, Soupault traveled to the United States but subsequently returned to France. His works include such fat volumes of poetry as Aquarium (1917) and Rose des vents [compass card] (1920) and the novel Les Dernières Nuits de Paris (1928; tr. Last Nights of Paris, 1929).

In 1957, he wrote the libretto for Germaine Tailleferre's Opera "La Petite Sirène", based on Hans Christian Anderson's tale "The Little Mermaid". The work was broadcast on French National Radio in 1959.