Revolution of the Mind: The Life of Andre Breton [Paperback]

Mark Polizzotti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2009

Aptly described by playwright Eugene Ionesco as "one of the four or five great reformers of modern thought", Andre Breton (1896-1966) was the founder and prime mover of Surrealism, the most influential artistic and literary movement of the 20th century. Poet and theorist, artistic impresario and political agitator, Breton was a man of paradoxical character: inspiring one moment, crushingly tyrannical the next; embracing friends like Brunuel, Dali, Duchamp, Miro, Man Ray, Aragon and Eluard, only to exile them as enemies later. From its emergence from Dada after World War I through its culmination in the 1960s, here is the Surrealist world in detail.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this, the first biography in English of the iconoclastic poet and founder of Surrealism, first-time author Polizzotti offers both an expertly researched life and an informed history of one of the defining cultural movements of this century. Beginning with a narrative of his subject's working-class youth in northern France, Polizzotti goes on to relate the concatenation of events and influences (most notably World War I and the literary supernovas Alfred Jarry and Guillaume Apollinaire) that conspired to shape Breton's uniquely opinionated personality. A cynical atheist, the poet, critic, and artist harbored an irrepressible streak of romanticism. Breton and his band of followers reached their pinnacle of genius and relevance in the late 1920s and early 1930s, after which the movement was beset by defections and excommunications?many largely in reaction to its founder's despotic leadership. The worldwide upheaval caused by World War II rendered the surrealist's efforts sterile and effete, and, to many onlookers, the war only proved how ineffectual these agents provocateurs had been all along. The artistic vanguard rapidly shifted from Paris to New York, and Breton's heyday had passed. Yet his influence had for a short time been truly revolutionary, and this very well written account can be highly recommended for all larger libraries. [For an in-depth look at the surrealists in the 1930s and 1940s, see Martica Sawin's Surrealism in Exileand the Beginning of the New York School, p. 73.?Ed.]?Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L., Cal.
-?Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Polizzotti, editorial director at David R. Godine Publishers, weighs in with a monumental first book that also happens to be the first comprehensive biography of Breton, the father of surrealism. Breton is quite a subject. Always in the thick of things literary, artistic, and political, his life story reads like a who's who of the early-twentieth-century avant-garde. Polizzotti skillfully covers all of Breton's influential critical, polemical, and creative activities, providing brisk but telling profiles of his friends, colleagues, and loved ones. He also conveys the full extent of the turbulence that dominated Breton's complex personality. A magnetic man given to "violent enthusiasms" and mood swings, Breton possessed a prodigious memory and was fascinated by everything from anarchism to Communism, psychic automatism, Dada, dreams, coincidence, and the "marvelous," or unexplainable. Polizzotti tracks Breton's experiences in World War I and the establishment of his most important relationships, then follows the rise, triumph, and decline of Breton's circle, the infamous, world-altering surrealists. Breton emerges from this vividly detailed and invaluable tome as a brilliant if ambivalent catalyst, a leader in the mercurial realm of modern art. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 680 pages
• Publisher: Commonwealth Books, Black Widow; Revised Edition edition (June 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979513782
• ISBN-13: 978-0979513787
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.1 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #914,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Polizzotti is an award-winning biographer, critic, translator, editor, and poet. His books include the collaborative novel S. (1991; with Harry Mathews, Jean Echenoz, et al.), Lautreamont Nomad (1994; revised ed. 2005), Revolution of the Mind: The Life of Andre Breton (1995; revised ed. 2009), a monograph on Luis Bunuel's Los Olvidados (2006), and Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (2006). His essays and reviews have appeared in The New Republic, ARTnews, The Nation, Parnassus, Partisan Review, and elsewhere. The translator of over thirty books from the French, including works by Gustave Flaubert, Marguerite Duras, Andre Breton, Jean Echenoz, and Maurice Roche, he directs the publications program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best bio I have ever read!, June 30, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Revolution of the Mind: The Life of Andre Breton (Hardcover)

I'd been interested in the Surrealists for years, and when I saw that Mark Polizzotti, a translator I had admired for years, had written one about the pope of Surrealism, Andre Breton, I knew that I must have it! From the first page, Polizzotti has you; informative, insightful, and mostly, very entertaining and stimulating. I thought that I knew most of the great stories of the movement and its contributors, but I was shocked: there are surprises everywhere. Quite simply: read this book, it will change you, and perhaps change the way think and perceive. Breton was of the the century's great thinkers

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book about André Breton and Surrealism, July 14, 2004

By 

Babak Andishmand (Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Holland)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Revolution of the Mind: The Life of Andre Breton (Hardcover)

This book is the best book about André Breton, it gives a good picture of the time in wich André Breton and hes friends lived.
Inspite of what many people say, this book does not reflect Breton as a bad tempered man in the negative sense. Breton had verry good reason for conflicts with certain people. Mark Pollizoti did a good job on research by talking to Bretons friends and looking in certain documents and letters. It shows André Breton exactly as he was and as he is described in the book. The revolutionaire leader who tried to change life and was loved as men loved women.

The fact that this is strangely the first good book about such a Revolutionairy man who made such a difference in the way we look at life, compensates with the content wich is verry deep and shows an insight in what happend during the years before, during and after the movement.

I recommend people to read this book after they have read books on surrealism and the movement.
Mark Pollizoti's years of research have proven to be worthy.

5.0 out of 5 stars Life, Love and Revolution, November 14, 2001

By 

stephen liem (antioch, ca United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Revolution of the Mind: The Life of Andre Breton (Hardcover)

When Aube (Breton's only child) was very young, Breton told her that someday he will tell and teach her anything she wants to know about "life, love and revolution". Indeed these can be described as the essence of Breton's colorful, and dramatic life. Plozzotti has not only told us aboiut the history of Surrealism, but also told us about how Breton started, and eventually controlled every aspect of this movement. Excellent book. Highly recommended.