. Good morning, my name is Guillaume Apollinaire!

Source Kirjasto - Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) - pseudonym of Guillelmus (or Wilhelm) Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky

Poet who took part in all avant-garde movements in French literature at the beginning of the 20th century. Besides writing poetry, Apollinaire published semi-pornographical books; he was an innovator in the theatre of the absurd, and made known Cubism as a school of painting with his study PEINTRES CUBISTES (1913). During the World War I Apollinaire enlisted and fought on the front. In a letter he described war as a "beautiful thing" and continued: "... despite all the risks I run, the exhaustion, the total lack of water, of everything, I am not unhappy to be here..."

"Although he lived his days among the baladins of Cubism and Futurism, he was not a modern man. He was somewhat less complex and more happy, more ancient, and stronger. (He was so unmodern that modernity seemed picturesque, and perhaps even moving, to him.) He was the "winged and sacred thing" of Platonic dialogue; he was a man of elemental and, therefore, eternal feelings; he was, when the fundaments of earth and sky shook, the poet of ancient courage and ancient honor." (Jorge Luis Borges in The Total Library, 1999)

Guillaume Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky kept his origin secret, but he was probably born in Rome as the illegitimate son of a Polish adventurer called Angelica de Kostrowitzky, a rebellious Polish girl. His father was possibly a Swiss-Italian aristocrat, Francesco Flugi d'Aspermont. He disappeared early from Apollinaire's life, and the future poet was raised by his gambling mother in Italy, in Monaco, on the French Riviera, and in Paris. In his youth Apollinaire assumed the identity of a Russian prince. He received a French education at the Collège Saint-Charles in Monaco, and afterwards in schools in Cannes and Nice. During the summer of 1899 he traveled in the Ardennes region of Belgium.

At the age of 20 Apollinaire settled in Paris, where he worked for a time for a bank. He contibuted to such periodicals as La Revue blanche, La Plume, and Le Mercure de France. In 1903 he founded his own magazine, Le Festin d'Esope, and the short-lived La Revue immoraliste. Among his friends were such artist as Pablo Picasso, André Derain, playwright Alfred Jarry, and the painter Marie Laurencin, who was his lover. At the age of twenty-one he traveled in Germany. In 1901-02 he worked as a tutor in the Rhineland. Although Apollinaire wrote poetry he was more known in the following years as the advocate of modern painting. He brought Picasso and Braque together, and helped organize the cubist room 41 at the Salon des Indépendants in 1911.

Apollinaire also edited a number of reviews, published satirical and semi-pornographical texts, and proclaimed that the writing of de Sade would dominate the 20th-century. His first prose work, L'ENCHANTEUR POURRISSANT (1909), was illustrated with woodcuts by André Derain. The prose-poem depicted the entombment of Merlin the Enchanter. His grave is visited by a number of figures from mythology, folklore and history. They have been interpreted as Merlin's alter egos. From his love for Viviane, the Lady of the Lake, Merlin creates a new vision of men and women.

With the publication of ALCOOLS (1913) Apollinaire was recognized as a highly original voice in contemporary poetry. LE BESTIAIRE (1911), initially illustrated by Raoul Dufy's woodcuts, was later set to music by Francis Poulenc. Alcools was a selection of poems written over the previous 15 years. It combined classical verse forms with modern imagery, involving transcriptions of street conversations overheard by change and the absence of punctuation. It opened with the poem 'Zone', in which the tormented poet wanders through streets after the loss of his mistress. Among its other famous lyrical pieces is 'Le pont Mirabeau.' Some of its poems were inspired by Jacqueline Kolb. Annie Playden, an English governess, inspired the Rhineland piece, 'La chanson du mal-aime.'

A la fin tu es las de ce monde ancien
Bergère ô tour Eiffel le troupeau des ponts bêle ce matin
Tu en as assez de vivre dans l'antiquité grecque et romaine
Ici même les automobiles ont l'air d'être anciennes
La religion seule est restée toute neuve la religion
Est restée simple comme les hangars de Port-Avion...
(from 'Zone')

When cubism had become a powerful force, Apollinaire published The Cubist Painters, which explored the theory of cubism and analyzed psychologically the chief cubists and their works. According to Apollinaire, art is not a mirror held up to nature, so cubism is basically conceptual rather than perceptual. By means of the mind, one can know the essential transcendental reality that subsists "beyond the scope of nature." Ten days after the appearance of the book, Apollinaire deserted cubism for Orphism. The concept was also invented by him and described "the art of painting new structures out of elements that have not been borrowed from the visual sphere but have been created entirely by the artist himself, and have been endowed by him with the fullness of reality." Among Orphicist artist were Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger, Francis Picabia, and Frantisek Kupka. The Surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico made in 1914 two paintings in tribute to Apollinaire. In Portrait of Apollinaire as a Premonition the poet uses sunglasses - he is blind.

In 1914 Apollinaire had a short-lived affair with Louise de Coligny, then with a schoolteacher called Madeleine Pagès, to whom he became engaged. Then he met Jacqueline Kolb, whom he married in 1918. Disenchanted with his reputation as a dangerous foreigner and thief - in 1911 he had been detained for a week on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa - he took out French nationality and enlisted in the infantry. He fought on the front in Champagne until 1916, when he received a head wound. Some of his poems Apollinaire wrote in the trench under fire: "The sky is starry with Boche shells / The marvelous forest where I live is giving a ball." During and after his convalescence in Paris he continued to arrange new exhibitions and staged his one play The Breasts of Tiresias in 1917, about a housewife, Therèse, who changes sex and lets her breasts floating upwards as toy balloons. Apollinaire called the play "Drame surréaliste", making the term known. "I have coined the adjective 'surrealist' which does not mean symbolical . . . but rather well defines a tendency of art, if it is no newer than anything else under the sun, has at least never been utilized to form an artistic or literary creed." In this successor of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi Apollinaire combined his own sexual obsessions with a satirical exploitation of Greek legend and ironic preoccupation with the low birth rate in 19c-20c France.

LE POÈTE ASSASSINÉ (1916, The Poet Assassinated) was a collage of the great fictional poet Croniamantal from his birth to his breakthrough as a poet and death at the hand of a mob. Apollinaire composed the work from pieces which he had saved for years. Its a broken, episodic narrative changes from farcical to exalted: "Others profited from the intermission by vomiting wildly, their eyes bulging out of their heads; their neighbours encouraged them with an imperturbable seriousness. Hannes Irlbeck, who had gotten back on his feet, but not without great effort, sniffed and murmured. 'There's no more beer in Munich.'"

Apollinaire died of influenza in the great epidemic of 1918, on November 9, in Paris in his apartment on the Boulevard Saint-Germain. Experimental CALLIGRAMMES (1918), Apollinaire's poetic record of his war experiences, was published a few months before his death. André Breton, Tristan Tzara, Paul Éluard, and Louis Aragon and other poets of the younger generation took up its call to investigate new worlds of expression. Cubism left its marks on several literary works and authors. Max Jacon, André Salmon, Pierre Reverdy, and Gertrude Stein were intimately connected with the cubist painters. In prose, critics have seen cubist aesthetics in André Gide's novel Les Fauxmonnayeurs (1925). Apollinaire's stature has continued to grow since his death, as the precursor of surrealism and as a modernist poet. The Breasts of Tiresias was made into an opera (1947) by Francis Poulenc.

For further reading: Apollinaire by Marcel Adéma (1954); Apollinaire, Poet among the Painters by F. Steegmuller (1963, 1971, 1973); Apollinaire by M. Davies (1964); Le dossier d'Alcools by M. Décaudin (1965); Giullaume Apollinaire by S. Bates (1967); Guillaume Apollinaire by P. Adéma (1968); Guillaume Apollinaire by L. Breuning (1969); Les Critiques de notre temps et Apollinaire, ed. by C. Tournadre (1971); Apollinaire by R. Couffignal (1975); Giullaume Apollinaire by L.C. Breuning (1980); One Evening of Light Mist in London: The Story of Annie Playden and Giullaume Apollinaire by J. Adlard (1980); Reading Apollinaire by T. Mathews (1987); Giullaume Apollinaire by J. Grimm (1993); The Cubist Epoch by Douglas Cooper (1994); Cubist Aesthetic Theories by Christopher Gray (1996) - See surreaalism and futurism: Giovanni Papini, Mayakovsky, Aaro Hellaakoski (Finnish poet), André Breton. - Finnish Futurism: Mika Waltari and Olavi Paavolainen published in 1928 a collection of poems, VALTATIET, which praised machines, urbanism and speed according to principles of Futurism - Huom.: Apollinairen taustasta tiedetään sen verran että hän oli helsinkiläissyntyisen puolattaren ja italialaisen upseerin avioton poika.

Selected works:

* LA GRÁCE ET LE MAINTIES FRANÇAIS, 1902 (with Molina da Silva)
* LES ONZE MILLE VERGES, 1906 - Flesh Unlimited (trans. by Alexis Lykiard) / The Debauched Hospodar / Les Onze Mille Verges: or, The Amorous Adventures of Prince Mony Vibescu (trans. by Donald Revell) - Hirveä Hospodor ja Don Juanin urotyöt (suom. Väinö Kirstinä)
* LE MÉMOIRES D'UN JEUNE DON JUAN, 1907 - Flesh Unlimited (trans. by Alexis Lykiard) / The Amorous Exploits of a Young Rakehell - Hirveä Hospodor ja Don Juanin urotyöt (suom. Väinö Kirstinä) - Other classic pornographic books: Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (1349-53), John Cleland's Fanny Hill (1748-49), My Secret Life (1890), Pauline Réage's (pseudonym of Dominique Aury, 1908-1998) The Story of O (1954).
* L'ENCHANTEUR POURRISSANT, 1909 - The Rotting Magician - Mätänevä velho (suom. Riikka Mahlamäki)
* L'HÉRÈSIARQUE ET CIE, 1910 - The Heresiarch and Co. (trans. by Remy Inglis Hall) / The Wandering Jew and Other Stories (trans. by Rèmy Inglis Hall)
* LE THÉÂTRE ITALIEN, 1910
* LE BESTIAIRE OU CORTÈGE D'ORPHÉE, 1911 - Bestiary (trans. by Pepe Karmel)
* CHRONIQUE DES GRANDS SIÈCLES DE LA FRANCE, 1912
* PEINTRES CUBISTES, 1913 - The Cubist Painters (trans. by Peter Read)
* L'ENFER DE LA BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE, 1913 (with F. Fleuret and L. Perceau)
* L'ANTITRADITION FUTURISTE, 1913
* LA FIN DE BABYLONE, 1914
* LES TROIS DON JUAN, 1914
* ALCOOLS, 1914 - Alcools (trans. by Donald Revell) - Alcools (suom. Jukka Kemppinen)
* CASE D'ARMONS, 1915
* LE POÈTE ASSASSINÉ, 1916 - The Poet Assassinated (trans. by Matthew Josephson)
* VITAM IMPENDERE AMORI, 1917
* LA MAMELLES DE TIRÉSIAS, 1917 - The Breasts of Tiresias
* CALLIGRAMMES, 1918 - Calligrammes: Poems of Peace and War (trans. by Anne Hyde Greet)
* LE FLÂNEUR DES DEUX RIVES, 1918
* L'ESPIRIT NOUVEAU ET LES POÈTES, 1918
* LA FEMME ASSISE, 1920
* CONTES CHOISIS, 1922
* IL Y A, 1925
* ANECDOTIQUES, 1926
* LES ÉPINGLES, 1918
* CONTEMPORAINS PITTORESQUES, 1929
* OMBRE DE MON AMOUR, 1947
* LETTRES À SA MARRAINE 1915-1918, 1948
* COULEUR DU TEMPS, 1949 - Color of Time (trans. by Barbara Gerber)
* QUE FAIRE?, 1950
* Selected Writings, 1950 (trans. by Roger Shattuck)
* TENDRE COMME LE SOUVENIR, 1952
* CASANOVA, 1952
* LE GUETTEUR MÉLANCOLIQUE, 1952
* TEXTES INÉDITS, 1952
* POÈMES À LOU, 1955
* ŒUVRES POÉTIQUES, 1956
* CHRONIQUES D'ART, 1960 - Apollinaire on Art, Essays and Reviews 1902-1918 (trans. by Susan Suleiman)
* LES DIABLES AMOUREUX, 1964
* Selected Poems, 1965 (expanded 1986, trans. by Oliver Bernard)
* LES ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES, 1966
* LETTRES À LOU, 1969
* LA DÉMOCRATIE SOCIALE, 1969
* Hunting Horns, 1970 (trans. by Barry Morse)
* LA BRÉHATINE, CINÉMA-DRAME, 1971
* Selected Writings of Guillaume Apollinaire, 1971 (trans. by Roger Shattuck)
* Zone, 1972 (trans. by Samuel Beckett)
* ŒUVRES EN PROSE, 1977
* CORRESPONDANCE AVED ANDRÉ LEVEL, 1978
* POÉSIES LIBRES, 1978
* APOLLINAIRE JOURNALISTE, 1979
* The Self-Dismembered Man: Selected Later Poems of Guillaume Apollinaire, 2004 (translated by Donald Revell).

Good morning, my name is Guillaume Apollinaire!
an introduction to L'Esprit Nouveau et les Poëtes - Björn Ericsson - Artbin

THE FRENCH-ITALIAN-POLISH poet Guillaume Apollinaire wasn't quite sure of his identity. Right in the middle of a hectic life of pleasure in early 20th century Paris, he halted for one moment - and asked himself "who am I", in a stanza without punctuation.
He was born in Rome in 1880 and died in Paris at the end of the war in 1918. At the time of his funeral, people ran out into the streets shouting: "Down with Guillaume!" But this did not refer to the poet, but to the German emperor Wilhelm (Guillaume in French). The chief mourners, following the casket - his mother and all kinds of artists - were shocked, supposing the uproar was on account of the dead poet.
Apollinaire's real name was Wilhelm-Apollinaris von Kostrowitzky. His mother was a Polish noble lady, who lived in the Vatican. Without being married, she became pregnant and had two sons. Apollinaire's maternal grandfather was a colonel and commander of the papal Swiss guards. But nobody knows for certain who Guillaume's father was. In Paris there were rumours that the pope himself was the father. This was neither confirmed nor denied by the poet.
After schooling in Nice, Cannes and Monaco, he quickly gained employment at an office, which bored him. His mother had lost the family assets at the casino. She married a Jewish business man, and the family moved to Paris. Before that, Guillaume had worked one summer as a private tutor to a noble girl in Bavaria, and experienced his first love affair with his pupil's best friend Annie.
In Paris Guillaume Apollinaire mingled in the bohemian artist circles. Through his great verbal talent, both in speech and in writing, he soon became a leading character there. Among his closest friends were Pablo Picasso, Max Jacob, André Billy, Eric Satie, and others. He became violently infatuated with his female fellow artists, especially with Marie Laurencin, to whom he dedicated a great part of his poetical production. Throughout his lifetime, his strongest bonds, however, were those to his mother.
When Apollinaire's office went bankrupt and he became unemployed, he started to publish pornographic books, together with a former school mate from Nice. Thus he accumulated enough money to make possible his later literary activities in magazines and publication of poetry collections.

Guillaume Apollinaire

Guillaume Apollinaire, the innovator of French poetry, was - like his artist friends - influenced by the rapid succession of frames in silent movies, and he adopted this technique in his own work. At the beginning of this century there was, in general, a great curiosity about new inventions within communications. Apart from trains, automobiles and airplanes, artists recognized entirely new means of expression through the telephone, the wireless telegraph and the phonograph.
Apollinaire outlined the developmental optimism of the time in his manifesto "The New Spirit and the Poets" (L'Esprit Nouveau et les Poëtes) in 1917; with his demise to the Spanish flu the next year, this actually became his artistic testament. His point of departure was a universal belief in scientific exploration of the macrocosm as well as of the microcosm, of things big and small. The altered conception of the world will necessarily bring on fresh ideas and new means of expression, breaking with antiquated tradition, he claimed. He especially stressed that artists should make use of a reality that sometimes exceeds legend or implements it:

It would be strange, during an epoch when the absolutely most popular artform, cinema, is a picture-book, if the poets did not try to create images for the thoughtful and more sophisticated souls, who will not be content with the filmmakers' clumsy imagination. The movies will get more sophisticated, and one can foresee the day when the phonograph and the cinema will be the only recording techniques in use, and poets may revel in a liberty hitherto unknown.

At the same time, Apollinaire, who was now a wounded patriot with bandaged head, talked with commitment about the decisive roll the French intellectual elite had in this new conception of art and culture. And he would probably have been overjoyed, if he had known that the editor Karl-Erik Tallmo one day would transmit his manifesto "L'Esprit Nouveau et les Poëtes" in French over the Internet!
But, again, who was Guillaume Apollinaire? Who knows? He delighted in good food and drink. He supported his friends, even when one of them stole a couple of Phoenician statues from the Louvre - both Apollinaire and Picasso became involved. He loved his women more than he could find free vent for. Instead, this spilled over into his writing, where it provided the French language with a new poetical spirit for all time to come.

© Copyright Björn Ericsson.