Guillaume APOLLINAIRE. autograph manuscript, Notice biograph - Lot 6

Guillaume APOLLINAIRE. autograph manuscript, Notice biographique, [1908]; 4 1/2 pages in-4 (27 x 22 cm), with erasures and corrections; on the back of leaves addressed 65, Rue de la Victoire. Interesting autobiographical note, which appears to be unpublished. [The Rue de la Victoire address is that of the Banque Centrale de Crédit mobilier & industriel and the Moniteur des Rentiers]. "The poet Guillaume Apollinaire was born in Rome (Italy) on August 26, 1880. He came to France at an early age and spent his childhood by the Mediterranean Sea. A lover of poetry, he devoted his life to it from the age of ten, when his first verses were written. Without a fortune, he has had to struggle to make a decent living without sacrificing his literary ideals. Having visited Paris several times during his childhood, Guillaume Apollinaire wanted to settle there permanently in 1899. At first, he met with general indifference, but in 1901, the young magazine La Grande France welcomed him. Towards the end of the same year, Guillaume Apollinaire had to leave for Germany, which he visited in its entirety. In 1902, he visited Prague, and the impression he made was so vivid that he translated it into a moving short story, Le Passant de Prague, which was published in the Revue Blanche, of which he had meanwhile become one of the most assiduous contributors. He then recalls his articles in L'Européen, the founding in 1903 of Le Festin d'Esope, "a review designed to defend lyricism against didacticism and false eloquence", and in 1905 of the short-lived Revue immoraliste, renamed Revue des Belles lettres in its second and final issue. "Thereafter, Guillaume Apollinaire published only at rare intervals, and he might not yet have emerged from this semi-silence if the valiant young review La Phalange had not come to seek him out in his retreat. He is currently working on several works in verse and prose, which will appear at the end of 1908 and in 1909. Guillaume Apollinaire is not only a poet, he is also a moving, unexpected and sometimes bizarre storyteller. He is no less esteemed as a critic. Picasso, Matisse, Marie Laurencin, André Derain, Othon Friesz, Georges Braque and others have found in him a learned and convinced apologist. This year, in May, he was chosen to deliver a comprehensive lecture on young French poetry. The usefulness of this enumeration was felt at a time when the old leaders of moribund schools were endeavoring to mislead the literati about the current direction of Lyrism in France. There was general agreement on the timeliness of the event and the tactfulness of the speaker. Guillaume Apollinaire has very personal ideas about poetry. It should be added that he considers the poet to be a divinity whose creature is poetry. And he has thus been led to see everything in eternity, so to speak, like the monster Chapalu in his Enchanteur pourrissant [ ] For Guillaume Apollinaire, poetry, in which he sees an exit to inhumanity, is not only the highest manifestation of the human spirit, but also an art separate from all others and from the sciences. For Guillaume Apollinaire, poetry is self-sufficient and is not to be confused with anything inferior to it, such as philosophy, the sciences, religions, etc." Finally, he enumerates the magazines and newspapers in which his work is published. Finally, he lists the magazines and newspapers to which he has contributed