René Crevel born 10 August 1900 (d. 1935)René Crevel was born in Paris to a bourgeois family and was a writer associated with the surrealist movement.
He studied English at the University of Paris, and in 1921 met Andre Breton - the principal founder and theorist of early surrealism - and joined the movement - from which he was excluded in 1925, possibly due to Breton's antipathy towards homosexuality; although many gay artists and writers are associated with surrealism, there was a broad anti-homosexual streak within the Surrealist movement.
It was largely during this period that he wrote most of his published works.
In 1926, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The 1929 exile of Leon Trotsky inspired him to rejoin the surrealists; faithful to Andre Breton, he attempted to bring the communists and surrealists closer together.
Faced with a worsening of his tuberculosis, in 1935 he turned on the gas stove in his Paris apartment and ended his life. He was 35.