Louis Aragon (French: [lwi aʁaɡɔ̃], 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet, who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France, who co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review Littérature.[1] He was also a novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.
Louis Aragon was born in Paris. He was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother, believing them to be his sister and foster mother, respectively. His biological father, Louis Andrieux, a former senator for Forcalquier, was married and thirty years older than Aragon’s mother, whom he seduced when she was seventeen. Aragon’s mother passed Andrieux off to her son as his godfather. Aragon was only told the truth at the age of 19, as he was leaving to serve in the First World War, from which neither he nor his parents believed he would return. Andrieux’s refusal or inability to recognize his son would influence Aragon’s poetry later on.