13 Facts About David Gascoyne

David Gascoyne was an English poet associated with the Surrealist movement, in particular the British Surrealist Group.

David Gascoyne grew up in England and Scotland, attending Salisbury Cathedral School and London's Regent Street Polytechnic.

David Gascoyne spent some of the early 1930s in Paris.

At the exhibition, David Gascoyne had to use a spanner to rescue Salvador Dali from a deep-sea diving suit he had worn to give his lecture.

David Gascoyne was an active anti-fascist, who took part in several protests against the British Union of Fascists in London's East End.

David Gascoyne joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1936 and travelled to Spain, where he broadcast some radio talks for the Barcelona-based propaganda ministry.

David Gascoyne had become friends with Charles Madge and through him became involved in the Mass Observation movement.

When later interviewed for the book Authors Take Sides on the Falklands, David Gascoyne expressed strong opposition to the Falklands War.

David Gascoyne spent the years just before World War II in Paris, where he became friends with Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Andre Breton, Paul Eluard and Pierre Jean Jouve.

David Gascoyne died on Gascoyne's 70th birthday, 10 October 1986.

In 1996, with the editorial assistance of Roger Scott, David Gascoyne penned a tribute to his late friend of sixty years George Barker entitled The Fire of Vision, privately printed by Alan Anderson for Alan Clodd.

David Gascoyne died on 25 November 2001 at the age of 85.

In later years, David Gascoyne seemed remarkably resigned to not altogether achieving in poetry what he had set out to do when young, and not sustaining a remarkable early promise.