René Crevel

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René Crevel (August 10, 1900 – June 18, 1935) was a French writer involved with the surrealist movement.

Contents 1 Life 2 Publications 2.1 Original French 2.2 English translations 3 External links

[edit] Life

Born in Paris to a family of Parisian bourgeoisie, Crevel studied English at the University of Paris. He met André Breton and joined the surrealist movement in 1921, from which he would be excluded in October 1923 due to Crevel's homosexuality and Breton's belief that the movement had been corrupted. It was at this time that he wrote novels such as Mon corps et moi ("My Body and Me"). In 1926 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The 1929 exile of Léon Trotsky persuaded him to rejoin the surrealists. Remaining faithful to André Breton, he struggled to bring communists and surrealists closer together.

Much of Crevel's work deals with his inner turmoil at being bisexual.

Crevel killed himself by turning on the gas on his kitchen stove the night of June 18th, 1935 just several weeks before the age of 35, after learning that he suffered from renal tuberculosis.

[edit] Publications

[edit] Original French

• Détours (1924)
• Mon Corps et moi (1925)
• La Mort difficile (1926)
• Babylone (1927)
• L'Esprit contre la raison (1928)
• Êtes-vous fous? (1929)
• Les Pieds dans le plat (1933)
• Le Roman cassé et derniers écrits (1934-1935)

[edit] English translations

• Babylon (translation of Babylone; Sun and Moon Press, 1996)
• Putting My Foot in It (translation of Les Pieds dans le plat; Dalkey Archive Press, 1994)
• Difficult Death (translation of La Mort difficile; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1986).

[edit] External links

• Putting My Foot in It. Official site for this translation.
• René Crevel, Freud de l’Alchimiste à l’Hygiéniste, Revue Le Disque Vert, 2e année, 3e Série, n°1, 1924.
• René Crevel, Notes en vue d’une psycho-dialectique, Revue Le S.A.S.D.L.R. (Le Surréalisme Au Service De La Révolution), n° 5, mai 1933.
• Photo