(real name, Samy Rosenstock). Born Apr. 14, 1896, in Moinesti, Rumania; died Dec. 24, 1963, in Paris. French poet.

In Paris in 1919, Tzara became one of the leaders of a group of dadaists, whose views he later expounded in Seven Manifestos of Dada (1924). He subsequently turned to surrealism, publishing his Essay on the State of Poetry (1931). During the rise of fascism, Tzara joined other leading representatives from the world of culture in defending the basic values of humanism as they came under attack. He later contributed to newspapers of the French Resistance.

In his early lyric poetry, including the collection The First Celestial Adventure of Monsieur Antipyrine (1916), Tzara expressed his anarchical rebellion against civilization through an almost futuristic language, consisting of disconnected and chaotic fragments of speech that could be perceived as those of a lunatic. In his later works, however, including the collections Noontides Gained (1939), Earth Descends Upon Earth (1946), At Full Flame (1955), and Permitted Fruit (1956), Tzara made use of symbolic language to convey his profound feelings on the tragedy of the human condition, writing of the hopes that animate man and impel him to seek happiness for himself and others.