Guillaume Apollinaire

**Guillaume Apollinaire** (, born **Kostrowicki**; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic. He had Polish ancestry.

Apollinaire is one of the most important poets of the early 20th century. He defended Cubism and helped start Surrealism. He invented the words "Cubism" in 1911, "Orphism" in 1912, and "Surrealism" in 1917.  Apollinaire wrote many early Surrealist works. One of these was the play _The Breasts of Tiresias_ (1917). This play became the basis for Francis Poulenc's 1947 opera _Les mamelles de Tirésias_.

When Guillaume was young, he was influenced by Symbolist poetry. During his life, he was admired by the young poets who helped influence Surrealism. He was very original, and his work was not based on any theory.

Apollinaire was also a journalist and art critic for _Le Matin_, _L'Intransigeant_, _L'Esprit nouveau_, _Mercure de France_, and _Paris Journal_. In 1912, Apollinaire cofounded _Les Soirées de Paris_, an artistic and literary magazine.

Apollinaire was wounded in World War I. During the pandemic of 1918, Apollinaire died of the Spanish flu.

### Poetry

- _L'enchanteur pourrissant_ (1909). _The Enchanter Rotting_
- _Le Bestiaire ou Cortège d'Orphée_ (1911)
- _Alcools_ (1913)
- _Vitam impendere amori_ (1917)
- _Calligrammes, poèmes de la paix et de la guerre 1913–1916_ (1918) (published shortly after Apollinaire's death)
- _Il y a..._ (1925) Albert Messein
- _Julie ou la rose_ (1927)
- _Ombre de mon amour_ (1947). Poems addressed to Louise de Coligny-Châtillon
- _Poèmes secrets à Madeleine_ (1949). Pirated edition
- _Le Guetteur mélancolique_ (1952). Previously unpublished works
- _Poèmes à Lou_ (1955)
- _Soldes_ (1985). Previously unpublished works
- _Et moi aussi je suis peintre_ (2006). Album of drawings for _Calligrammes_, from a private collection

### Novels

- _Mirely ou le Petit Trou pas cher_ (1900). _Mirely, or The Cheap Little Hole_ (unpublished)
- _Que faire ?_ (1900). _What to Do?_
- _Les Onze Mille Verges ou les Amours d'un hospodar_ (1907). _The Eleven Thousand Rods_; _The Debauched Hospodar_
- _Les Exploits d'un jeune Don Juan_ (1911). _The Amorous Exploits of a Young Rakehell_, trans. Reaves Tessor (1959)
- _La Rome des Borgia_ (1914). _The Rome of the Borgias_
- _La Fin de Babylone_ (1914). _The Fall of Babylon_
- _Les Trois Don Juan_ (1915). _The Three Don Juans_
- _La Femme assise_ (1920). _The Sitting Woman_

### Short story collections

- _L'Hérèsiarque et Cie_ (1910). _The Heresiarch and Co._, trans. Rémy Inglis Hall (1965)
- _Le Poète assassiné_ (1916). _The Poet Assassinated_, trans. Matthew Josephson (1923, title story); trans. Ron Padgett (1968, unabridged)
- _Les Épingles_ (1928). _The Pins_

### Plays

- _Les Mamelles de Tirésias_ (1917). _The Breasts of Tiresias_
- _La Bréhatine_ (1917). Screenplay (collaboration with André Billy)
- _Couleurs du temps_ (1918)
- _Casanova_ (published 1952)

### Articles

- _Le Théâtre italien_, illustrated encyclopedia, 1910
- Preface, Catalogue of 8th _Salon annuel du Cercle d'art Les Indépendants_, Musée moderne de Bruxelles, 10 June – 3 July 1911.
- _La Vie anecdotique_, Chroniques dans Le Mercure de France, 1911–1918
- _Pages d'histoire, chronique des grands siècles de France_, chronicles, 1912
- _Les Peintres Cubistes, Méditations Esthétiques_, 1913
- _La Peinture moderne_, 1913
- _L'Antitradition futuriste, manifeste synthèse_, 1913
- _Jean Metzinger à la Galerie Weill_, Chroniques d'art de Guillaume Apollinaire, _L'Intransigeant_, Paris Journal, 27 May 1914
- _Case d'Armons_, 1915
- _L'esprit nouveau et les poètes_, 1918
- _Le Flâneur des Deux Rives_, chronicles, 1918

### Translations into English

- _The Poet Assassinated_, trans. Matthew Josephson (The Broom Publishing, 1923)
- _Selected Writings_, trans. Roger Shattuck (New Directions, 1948)
- _Alcools: Poems 1898–1913_, trans. Walter Meredith (Doubleday, 1964)
- _Alcools_, trans. Anne Hyde Greet (University of California Press, 1965)
- _Selected Poems_, trans. Oliver Bernard (Penguin, 1965; expanded, bilingual edition, Anvil Press, 1986)
- _The Heresiarch and Co._, trans. Rémy Inglis Hall (1965), published in the UK as _The Wandering Jew and Other Stories_ (1967)
- _The Poet Assassinated_, trans. Ron Padgett (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968)
- _Calligrams_, trans. Anne Hyde Greet (Unicorn Press, 1970)
- _Apollinaire on Art: Essays and Reviews, 1902-1918_, trans. Susan Suleiman (1972)
- _Zone_, trans. Samuel Beckett (Dolmen Press, 1972)
- _Alcools: Poems_, trans. Donald Revell (Wesleyan University Press, 1995)
- _The Self-Dismembered Man: Selected Later Poems_, trans. Donald Revell (Wesleyan University Press, 2004)
- _The Little Auto_, trans. Beverley Bie Brahic (CB editions, 2012)
- "Zone", trans. David Lehman, in _Virginia Quarterly Review_ (2013)
- _Zone: Selected Poems_, trans. Ron Padgett (New York Review Books, 2015)
- _Selected Poems_, trans. Martin Sorrell (Oxford University Press, 2015)

## In popular culture

- French composer Francis Poulenc has set Apollinaire's poems to music in his five-part song cycle _Banalités_ (1940), which in turned inspired Pink Martini's song _Sympathique (je ne veux pas travailler)_ in 1997.
- Dutch composer Marjo Tal set some of Apollinaire’s poetry to music.
- French composer Denise Roger set Apollinaire’s poetry to music.
- Apollinaire is played by Seth Gabel in the 2018 television series _Genius_, which focuses on the life and work of Pablo Picasso.

## References and sources

- References

- Sources
- _Apollinaire_, Marcel Adéma, 1954
- _Apollinaire, Poet among the Painters_, Francis Steegmuller, 1963, 1971, 1973
- _Apollinaire_, M. Davies, 1964
- _Guillaume Apollinaire_, S. Bates, 1967
- _Guillaume Apollinaire_, P. Adéma, 1968
- _The Banquet Years_, Roger Shattuck, 1968
- _Apollinaire_, R. Couffignal, 1975
- _Guillaume Apollinaire_, L.C. Breuning, 1980
- _Reading Apollinaire_, T. Mathews, 1987
- _Guillaume Apollinaire_, J. Grimm, 1993

## Other websites

- Reading Apollinaire’s ‘Vendémiaire’, _ Cordite Poetry Review_ 2014
- "Official" site hosted by Western Illinois University
- Becker, Annette: Apollinaire, Guillaume, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- Audio recordings of Apollinaire reading his poems "Le Pont Mirabeau", "Marie" and "Le Voyageur"
- English verse translation of _Le Pont Mirabeau_
- Guillaume Apollinaire (poems in French and English)
- _Les onze mille verges_ an e-book (in French)
- A digital rendition of Apollinaire's best known poem, "Il Pleut"

## Infobox (writer)

- **birth name**: Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki
- **name**: Guillaume Apollinaire
- **image**: Guillaume Apollinaire foto.jpg
- **caption**: Photograph of Guillaume Apollinaire in spring 1916 after a shrapnel wound to his temple
- **birth place**: Rome, Kingdom of Italy, Italy
- **death place**: Paris, French Third Republic, France
- **movement**: Cubism, Surrealism, Orphism (art), Orphism
- **signature**: Guillaume Apollinaire signature.svg
- **resting place**: Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris