René Daumal (French: [domal]; 16 March 1908 – 21 May 1944) was a French spiritual para-surrealist writer, critic and poet, best known for his posthumously published novel Mount Analogue (1952) as well as for being an early, outspoken practitioner of pataphysics.

[5] Although courted by André Breton, the journal was founded as a counter to Surrealism and Dada;[6] the Surrealists reacted to its publication with some hostility.

[9] Daumal's sudden and premature death from tuberculosis on 21 May 1944 in Paris may have been hastened by youthful experiments with drugs and psychoactive chemicals, including carbon tetrachloride.

He died leaving his novel Mount Analogue unfinished, having worked on it until the day of his death.

[citation needed] The motion picture The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky is based largely on Daumal's Mount Analogue.