Louis Aragon (October 3, 1897 – December 24, 1982), French historian, poet and novelist.

Member of the Dadaist and subsequently the surrealist circles.

Married Russian-born author Elsa Triolet (born 1896) in 1939, the sister-in-law of Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.

During the occupation of France he wrote for the underground press Les Editions de Minuit, and was one of several writers who adopted the name of a French region as a pseudonym. After process of Manouchian group when the Germans began a propaganda campaign- Red Poster- in which the Germans wanted to show the French that the resistance movement was composed of foreigners, mainly Jewish, who served the interests of England and Russia. Aragon later wrote a poem entitled "Red Poster," in which he honoured those foreigners who had died fighting to free France.

After the death of his wife (June 16, 1970) in the 1970s, Aragon came out as a bisexual, appearing at gay pride parades in a pink convertible (Ivry 1996, p.134).

Source

• Ivry, Benjamin (1996). Francis Poulenc, 20th-Century Composers series. Phaidon Press Limited. ISBN 071483503X.