Michel Leiris - Biography, Works include

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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Julien Michel Leiris (April 20, 1901 in Paris – September 30, 1990 in Saint-Hilaire, Essonne) was a French surrealist writer and ethnographer.

Biography

Michel Leiris obtained his baccalauréat in philosophy in 1918 and after a brief attempt at studying chemistry, he developed a strong interest in jazz and poetry. Through Masson, Leiris became a member of the Surrealist movement, contributed to La Révolution surréaliste and published Simulacre (1925), and Le Point Cardinal (1927).

Following a fall out with André Breton in 1929, he joined Bataille’s team as a sub-editor for Documents, to which he also regularly contributed articles such as “Notes on Two Microcosmic Figures of the 14th and 15th Centuries” (1929, issue 1), “In Connection with the ‘Musée des Sorciers" (1929, issue 2), "Civilisation" (1929, issue 4), “The ‘Caput Mortuum’ or the Alchemist’s Wife” (1930, issue 8), and on artists such as Giacometti, Miró, Picasso, and the 16th Century painter, Antoine Caron. Considered a leading figure in 20th century French literature, Michel Leiris left a considerable amount of works, as diverse as they are numerous, from autobiographical works such as L’Age d’homme (1939), La Règle du jeu (1948-1976) and his Journal 1922-1989 (published postmortem in 1992); (His fields of interest in anthropology ranged from bullfighting to possession in Gondar, Ethiopia.)

Works include

Simulacre (1925) Le Point Cardinal (1927) L’Âge d’homme (1939) La Langue secrète des Dogons de Saga (1948) Race et civilisation (1951) La Possession et ses aspects théatraux chez les Éthiopiens du Gondar (1958) Brisées (1966) Au verso des images (1980) Francis Bacon face et profil (1983) Operratiques (1992 ) La Règle du jeu (1948-1976) Journal 1922-1989 (published in 1992)