Julien Torma was a French writer, playwright and poet who was part of the Dada

Dada

Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...

ist movement. He was born in Cambrai

Cambrai

Cambrai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Cambrai is the seat of an archdiocese whose jurisdiction was immense during the Middle Ages. The territory of the Bishopric of Cambrai, roughly coinciding with the shire of Brabant, included...

, France, and died in Tyrol.

A friend of Max Jacob

Max Jacob

Max Jacob was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic.-Life and career:After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, France, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic career...

 and Robert Desnos

Robert Desnos

Robert Desnos , was a French surrealist poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day.- Biography :...

, he was near the surrealist group

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

 without adhering to surrealism. He felt himself nearer to Alfred Jarry

Alfred Jarry

Alfred Jarry was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany; he was of Breton descent on his mother's side....

's 'pataphysics than André Breton

André Breton

André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....

's surrealism. Most of his writings were posthumously revealed by the French College of 'Pataphysique.

Julien Torma disappeared in the mounts of Tyrol at the age of 30. He possibly committed suicide.

Due to his elusive behaviour and the impossibility to check his life facts, it has been suggested many times that Julien Torma's existence may be entirely fictional. His purported birthday, April 6, is marked as "the birthday of pataphysics" in the "pataphysics calendar". Nevertheless, some believe that a real writer eager to create confusion authored the first four publications and Porte battantes. Anyway, would the person be real, Torma has to be a pen name: according to the French institute for statistics INSEE

INSEE

INSEE is the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies. It collects and publishes information on the French economy and society, carrying out the periodic national census. Located in Paris, it is the French branch of Eurostat, European Statistical System...

, since 1891, only three Torma births have been recorded in France, all of them between 1941 and 1965 in the South-West.

Publications

• The Obscure Lamp. 1919.
• The Big Troche. 1925.
• Cuts. 1926.
• Euphorisms. 1926.

Posthumous publications

• Lebordelamer. 1955.
• Le Bétrou. 1955.
• Porte Battante. 1963.
• Grabuge. 1998.
• Definitively incomplete writings. 2003.