French · 1907–1988
French poet who joined the Surrealists, led a Resistance unit, and wrote aphoristic verse of compressed intensity. Born in Provence, he allied with Breton in the 1930s before breaking away. During the Occupation, he commanded a Maquis unit under the name Capitaine Alexandre. Feuillets d'Hypnos, written in the field, is his masterpiece—fragments of experience and philosophy shaped by danger. Postwar collections continued his method: short, dense, oracular. Heidegger admired him; younger poets imitated him. He remained in Provence, austere and celebrated, writing until his death.