Éluard, Paul

(pseudonym of Eugene Emile Paul Grindel). Born Dec. 14, 1895, in St. Denis, Seine Department; died Nov. 18, 1952, in Charenton-le-Pont. French poet. Member of the French Communist Party from 1942.

Éluard was drafted into the army in 1914; his impressions of the front formed the basis of his collection Duty and Alarm (1917). He published Poems for Peacetime in 1918, and in 1919 he turned to dadaism. The collections Animals and Their People, People and Their Animals (1920) and Examples (1921) contain many enigmatic, abstruse poems.

In late 1924, Éluard and such writers as A. Breton and L. Aragon became the heads of a group of surrealists (seeSURREALISM); although he did not fully share their platform, Eluard remained with the surrealists until 1938. His works became increasingly democratic in content, and in many respects they did not reflect the surrealist revolt against reason, language, and cultural heritage. In his intimate and philosophic lyric poetry of the 1920’s and 1930’s, including the collections Capital of Pain (1926) and Life Immediate (1932), Éluard attempted an interpretation of reality that was based on a Utopian dream about an all-powerful human miracle worker.

In 1936, Éluard opposed Franco’s revolt in Spain. He was called to duty in the army in 1939. After returning to occupied Paris, he wrote patriotic poetry, including the collection Open Book I, 1938–40 (1940), On the Lower Slopes (1942), and Open Book II (1942). He joined the Communist Party and worked in the underground press. The poem “Freedom” from his book Poetry and Truth (1942) became the poetic rallying cry of the Resistance. In the collections At the German Rendezvous (1942-45) and Worthy of Life (1944), the civic lyrics are inseparable from the love lyrics.

Éluard took part in the peace movement after the war. In the collections Hommages (1950), To Be Able to Say Everything (1951), and Phoenix (1951), he developed the themes of love and brotherhood and affirmed the civic responsibility of the poet. In 1951, he and P. Picasso published the collection The Face of Peace. He visited the USSR twice, in 1950 and 1952. Éluard was awarded the International Peace Prize in 1953.