biography
pronunciation:
[lairees]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1901–90)
|
| biography:
| Writer and anthropologist, born in Paris, France. Early involved with the Surrealists (1925–9), his poetry includes Simulacre (1925), Haut Mal (1943), La Rose des vents (1939–40), and Nuits sans nuits (1945). A novel, Aurora, appeared in 1946. His poems and novel all show his fascination with puns and word play and the associative power of language. Other works include the autobiographical L'Age d'or (4 vols, 1946–66), and critical studies of painters (Masson, Picasso, Miro). As an anthropologist he visited Africa and China, and joined the trans-African Dakar–Djibouti expedition (1931–3). Among his essays are L'Afrique fantôme (1934, Phantom Africa), which shocked the public, Race et civilisation (1951), and the autobiographical L'Age d'homme (1963, Manhood). |
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