Paul Eluard

Paul Éluard was the nom de plume of Eugène Grindel, a French poet born on December 14, 1895, in Saint-Denis, near Paris.

Initially involved with the Dada movement, he later was a founding member of the Surrealism movement along with Louis Aragon, André Breton and Luis Buñuel amongst others. Éluard admired Walt Whitman, whose "Leaves of Grass" he read many times.

He was first married to Gala Eluard, born Helena Deluvina Diakinoff, with whom he had a daughter, Cécile. A Russian he met while being treated for tuberculosis in a sanatorium in Switzerland, Gala later left him for Salvador Dali.

During World War II he served in the French army and later in the Communist Resistance with his second wife, Nusch (Maria Benz). He continued his work in the communist field after the war.

Friends with Pablo Picasso for many years, the famous artist would paint both Paul Éluard and his wife, Nusch.

He died on November 18, 1952 and is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France.