For more information on André-Aimé-René Masson, visit Britannica.com.

Masson, André (1921-88). Born in Rose Hill, Mauritius, Masson became a journalist having failed to be admitted to the priesthood. Less prolific than his brother, Loys [see below], and less tempted by exile, André is best known for his violent, hallucinatory realist novel, Un temps pour mourir (1962), in which tropical cyclones and equally unpredictable and uncontrollable passions tear through the text. Le Chemin de pierre ponce (1963) is a novel which focuses on totalitarianism. His third novel, Le Temps juste (1966), is a metaphysical work which explores Being and Time.

[Belinda Jack]

(äNdrā' mäsôN') , 1896–1987, French painter and graphic artist. An exponent of surrealism until 1928, Masson developed “automatic writing”—spontaneous linear expressions of his personal mythology. After World War II he painted superb landscapes in Aix-en-Provence. His Meditation on an Oak Leaf and other works are in the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.