Apollinaire: Lettres, Calligrammes et Manuscrits

This large-format book includes full-size, facsimile, colour reproductions of over one hundred manuscript pages by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, selected, transcribed, dated, introduced and presented by Peter Read. The book provides access to documents which are held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet and private collections in France, Italy, the United States and elsewhere. They include notes and fragments, drafts and completed poems, short stories, art criticism, correspondence, collages, corrected proofs, drawings, picture poems and hand-painted calligrammes, many published here for the first time. Dating from 1895 to 1918, the manuscripts are ordered chronologically, from the poet's beginnings, at the age of 14, through the era of heroic modernism, into the war years, with manuscripts written under fire, in the artillery and then in the front-line trenches, and up to the last year of the poet's life. Following a general Introduction, the book is divided into three sections, each with its own Introduction, and each manuscript is accompanied by an individual commentary, allowing readers to follow the poet's aesthetic development while also providing a historic and biographical narrative, rooted in the poet's work, always at the heart of his creative processes. These are documents of historical and patrimonial significance and the book has been sponsored and funded by the French government's Mission du centenaire de la Première Guerre mondiale.