Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire (French: [ɡijom apɔlinɛ"]; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent.
Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the early 20th century, as well as one of the most impassioned defenders of Cubism and a forefather of Surrealism. He is credited with coining the first term in 1911 for the new art movement, and of coining the latter in 1917 to describe the works of Erik Satie. Finally the term "Orphism" (1912) is of his. Apollinaire wrote one of the earliest works described as Surrealist, the play The Breasts of Tiresias (1917), which was used as the basis for the 1947 opera Les mamelles de Tirésias.
Two years after being wounded in World War I, he died in the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 at age 38.
- On 7 September 1911, police arrested and jailed him on suspicion of aiding and abetting the theft of the Mona Lisa and a number of Egyptian statuettes from the Louvre, but released him a week later. The theft of the statues was committed by a former secretary of Apollinaire's, Honoré Joseph Géry Pieret, who had returned one of the stolen statues to the French newspaper the Paris-Journal. Apollinaire implicated his friend Pablo Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning in the theft of the Mona Lisa, but he was also exonerated. The theft of the Mona Lisa was perpetrated by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian house painter who acted alone and was only caught two years later when he tried to sell the painting in Florence.
- In 1907 Apollinaire published the well-known erotic novel, The Eleven Thousand Rods (Les Onze Mille Verges). Officially banned in France until 1970, various printings of it circulated widely for many years. Apollinaire never publicly acknowledged authorship of the novel.
- Another erotic novel attributed to him was The Exploits of a Young Don Juan (Les exploits d'un jeune Don Juan), in which the 15-year-old hero fathers three children with various members of his entourage, including his aunt. Apollinaire's gift to Picasso of the original 1907 manuscript was one of the artist's most prized possessions. The book was made into a movie in 1987.
- From Private Case by Patrick J Kearney
109. VERGER DES AMOURS (Le). Orné de six pointes-sèches. Monaco: 1924. (Paris: René Bonne], 1927.) 8vo. Unpaginated.
- The illustrations are ascribed to Foujita. No. 46 of 90 on vergé de Rives. From the Girard collection; donated to the British Library by E. J. Dingwall. (9 April 1949.) P.C. 15.b.8.
- Concerning Apollinaire's alleged authorship of this small collection of erotic verse, Marcel Adéma has the following to say: "It is ... very improbable that this work is really by Apollinaire, it is probably a very clever pastiche. A poet, and friend of F. Fleuret, M. R. v., had occasion to see the dedication of a copy given by Fleuret to Pascal Pia, which leaves no doubt on the matter." (Adéma, Apollinaire, London, 1954, p. 288.) According to Gershon Legman this `charming forgery' is in fact by Pascal Pia, who when asked by Mr Legman point blank if he would indicate which parts he had written and which, if any, were the authentic work of Pia's former friend, Apollinaire, replied urbanely: `My dear young friend, we must leave something for the Ph.D.'s (agrégés) of the future!'
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root