Initially involved with the Dada movement, he later was a founding member of the Surrealism movement along with Louis Aragon, André Breton and Luis Buñuel amongst others. Éluard admired Walt Whitman, whose "Leaves of Grass" he read many times.
He was first married to Gala Eluard[?], born Helena Deluvina Diakinoff, with whom he had a daughter, Cécile. A Russian immigrant eleven years his senior, Gala later left him for Salvador Dali.
During World War II he served in the French army and later in the Communist Resistance with his second wife, Nusch[?] (Maria Benz). He continued his work in the communist field after the war.
Friends with Pablo Picasso for many years, the famous artist would paint both Paul Eluard and his wife, Nusch.
He died on November 18, 1952 and is buried in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France.
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