Philippe Soupault

The first book of automatic writing, Les Champs magnétiques (1920), was co-authored by Soupault and Breton.

The recorded working language is French and German. The field of work recorded is poetry, prose and literary criticism. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are poetry and essay. Guillaume Apollinaire is recorded as an influence. Employment is recorded with Swarthmore College. Works named in the authority record are Les Champs Magnétiques. Work by Philippe Soupault is recorded in the collections of J. Paul Getty Museum. Distinctions recorded are Grand prix de littérature de la SGDL, Grand Prix de Poésie, Saint-Simon Award and Grand prix national des Lettres.

In 1922 he was asked to reinvent the literary magazine Les Écrits nouveaux, for which he also created an editorial board. In 1927 Soupault, with the help of his then wife Marie-Louise, translated William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience into French. The next year, Soupault authored a monograph on Blake, arguing the poet was a "genius" whose work anticipated the Surrealist movement in literature. In 1933 at a reception at the Soviet Embassy in Paris, he met Ré Richter, and they decided to do some travel reportage together. Ré Richter's photographs, taken with her 6x6 Rolleiflex, were to be published alongside Philippe Soupault's literary texts. In the following years, the two of them continued in the same vein, travelling to Germany, Switzerland, England, Scandinavia and Tunisia. They married in 1937 and separated after the end of the war; he moved back to Europe, and she remained in New York for some time. Soupault directed Radio Tunis from 1937 until 1940, when he was arrested by the pro-Vichy regime. After imprisonment by the Nazis in Tunis during World War II, he and his wife fled to Algiers. From there, they traveled to the United States. He took a teaching position at Swarthmore College, but returned subsequently to France in October 1945. His works include large volumes of poetry such as Aquarium (1917) and Rose des vents (Compass Card) (1919), and the novel Les Dernières Nuits de Paris (1928; translated as Last Nights of Paris, 1929). In 1957, he wrote the libretto for Germaine Tailleferre's opera La Petite Sirène, based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale "The Little Mermaid". The work was broadcast by French Radio National in 1959. Soupault died in Paris in 1990.

• Aquarium (1917) • Rose des vents (1919) • Les Champs magnétiques with André Breton (1919) • Westwego (1922) • Georgia (1926) • Il y a un océan (1936) • Ode to the Bombed London / Odes à Londres bombardée (1944). Bilingual edition, trans. Norman Cameron • Odes 1943-1946 (1946) • L’Arme secrète (1946) • Message de l'île déserte (1942-1944) (1947) • Chansons (1949) • Sans phrases (1953) • Arc-en-ciel (1979) • Poèmes retrouvés 1918-1981 (1982) • Poèmes et Poésies (1987)

• Le Bon Apôtre (1923) • Les Frères Durandeau (1924) • Voyage d'Horace Pirouelle (1925). The Voyage of Horace Pirouelle, trans. Justin Vicari (Wakefield Press, 2023) • Le Nègre (1927) • Les Dernières Nuits de Paris (1928). Last Nights of Paris, trans. William Carlos Williams (Macaulay Company, 1929) • Le Grand Homme (1929) • Les Moribonds (1934)

• William Blake (1928). William Blake, trans. J. Lewis May (John Lane, 1928) • Profils perdus (1963). Lost Profiles: Memoirs of Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism, trans. Alan Bernheimer (City Lights, 2016)

• L’Invitation au suicide (1921) • Le Temps des assassins (1945). Age of Assassins: The Story of Prisoner No. 1234, trans. Hannah Josephson (Knopf, 1946) • Mémoires de l'oubli (1914-1923) (1981) • Mémoires de l'oubli (1923-1926) (1986) • Mémoires de l'oubli (1927-1933) (1997)

• I'm Lying: Selected Translations of Philippe Soupault, trans. Paulette Schmidt (Lost Roads, 1985) • Philippe Soupault: Poetry, Prose, and Interviews, trans. Gregg Ellis (Serving House Books, 2025)

He also worked under the name Philippe Verneuil. The authorities additionally record the headings Philippe Souplault, Philippe Verneuil, Phillipe Soupault and Phillipe Soupalt. His recorded languages were French and German. He was the child of Maurice Soupault. He married Ré Soupault, Marie-Louise Soupault and Suzanne Pillard.