André Breton (1896-1966), the son of a Norman policeman and a seamstress, studied medicine in Paris and was drafted to serve in World War I in 1915. While working on a neurological ward, he met Jacques Vaché, a devotee of Alfred Jarry, and Vaché's rebellious spirit and suicide at the age of twenty-three would powerfully shape Breton's sensibility. Thanks to the auspices of Paul Valéry, Breton worked as an assistant to Marcel Proust, and in 1919, along with Philippe Soupault and Louis Aragon, he founded the journal Littérature. The Magnetic Fields, the first book of automatic writing (published by NYRB Poets), appeared in 1920, and in 1924, having broken with Tristan Tzara and the Dadaists, Breton issued the Manifesto of Surrealism. Among his other major works are Anthology of Black Humor, Mad Love, and Surrealism and Painting.

Mark Polizzotti has translated more than sixty books from the French, including Arthur Rimbaud's The Drunken Boat: Selected Writings (NYRB Poets) and Jean Echenoz's Command Performance (NYRB Classics), and is the author of thirteen books, including Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton, Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto, Why Surrealism Matters, and Jump Cuts: Essays. He lives in New York.