Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud (1896–1948), the author of The Theater and Its Double, was a Surrealist poet before breaking with the movement when it became too political. Better known as a theorist than an artist, his own works were often viewed as failures, but he was a major influence on such writers as Beckett, Genet, and Ionesco. He suffered from mental disorders that kept him in and out of asylums for much of his life.