About
Yvan Goll, born Isaac Lang on March 29, 1891 in Saint-Dié and died on February 27, 1950 in Paris, was a bilingual French-German writer. A pacifist, he took refuge in Switzerland during World War I. Settling in Paris in 1919, he founded the review Surréalisme in 1924, sparking a quarrel with André Breton. He co-founded Zenithism and wrote Methusalem, a prototype of absurdist theatre. Exiled in New York from 1939 to 1947, he published the review Hemispheres there. His work, marked by exile and wandering, includes the poetic cycle Jean sans Terre.
* 1891-03-28 — † 1950-02-27
Major works
- Mathusalem (1922)play
- Jean sans Terre (1936)poetic cycle
- Traumkraut (1951)poetry collection
Key milestones
- 1914-1919Took refuge in Switzerland to escape German conscription.
- 1924Founded the review Surréalisme, a few weeks before André Breton's Surrealist Manifesto.
- 1939-1947Exiled in New York, he founded the review Hemispheres there.
Themes
exile and wanderinglove and deathpacifismavant-garde and surrealismbilingualism and identity
Sources: hls-dhs-dss.ch · deutsche-biographie.de · id.loc.gov