MARK POLIZZOTTI
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reputation. According to Jean van Heijenoort, he immediately began
planning for the Surrealist to spearhead an independent writers' federa–
tion in France, as a counter to similar Communist organizations in Eu–
rope and America. Before Breton's arrival, he had also requested some of
his books in order to acquaint himself with Surrealism. American art
critic Meyer Schapiro sent the first
Manifesto, Nadja, The Communicating
Vessels,
and probably
Mad Love
from New York - although when they
arrived, Trotsky left them unread on his desk for several weeks, and
leafed through them only at the last minute. Finally, through Hei–
jenoort, Trotsky made inquiries about Breton to Naville in Paris, who
sent back a generally favorable report.
By the time of the two men's meeting, therefore, Trotsky was fairly
well versed in Breton's thinking (well enough, in any case, to make
Breton feel that he had read his books attentively) and favorably disposed
toward the Surrealist leader. Early in May, he warmly welcomed Breton
to the Blue House on Avenida Londres, with its "plant-filled patio, cool
rooms, collections of pre-Columbian art, and countless paintings": the
house in which Trotsky had lived and worked for the past year and a
half "We were all very moved," Jacqueline recalled, "even
L.
D. [for
Leon Davidovich Trotsky]. We immediately felt welcomed with open
arms,"
As for Breton, his admiration for the fifty-eight-year-old revolu–
tionary bordered on hero worship. "My heart beat fast as I watched the
gates to the Blue House open," he told a Trotskyist group once back in
Paris:
I was led through the garden, with too little time to view the
bougainvillea whose pink and violet flowers thrust themselves from
the soil, the endless cacti, the stone idols assembled along the paths
with loving care by Diego Rivera .. . I found myself in a well-lit
room that was filled with books. Comrades, at the moment I saw
Comrade Trotsky, standing at the center of this room, my mind's im–
age of him was overwhelmed by a real one. I could not repress the
impulse to tell him I was astonished to find him so young ... The
deep blue eyes, the remarkable face, the abundant silver locks, the
florid complexion, made up a
masque
on which one feels that an in–
ward peace has enabled him, and will continue to enable him, to pre–
vail against the cruelest misfortune .. . As his visage becomes ani–
mated, as his hands express with extraordinary finesse this or that re–
mark, he radiates from his whole person something electrifying.
