Guillaume APOLLINAIRE – Autograph letter signed to LOU
Guillaume APOLLINAIRE (1880 - 1918), French poet
Letter to Lou, written from the Front
L.AS. “ton Gui”, June 7, 1915, to Louise de Coligny-Châtillon, “Lou”; 4 pages in-8.
Letter written from the front in Champagne, which mixes news of his daily life, waiting for the enemy in the trenches, rumors circulating about the fall of the Viviani ministry and his cruel need for love, which unfortunately gets bogged down in a dying love: "My darling little girl, I hardly know what to write to you today except my love. Up at 4 o'clock for the review, delivery of citations to the order, at least that's what I think it's called. Then the rumor goes around that the ministry will fall, Joffre will become Minister of War, Galliéni Generalissimo, and Caillaux President of the Council, and well, although the latter was still a month ago the most disliked man in France, I heard the most intelligent guys, even officers, say: "Long live Caillaux! He will bring us peace. I did not want to believe my ears, but also: "Caillaux, it is peace, still rings in my ears as much in the engineering pits where I was this morning 6 meters from the rocks, as in the artillery cantonments where I am this afternoon. However, I am sure that the Caillaux question aside, Galliéni would be an amazing comfort and the march forward. - We are all dressed in new clothes, and well dressed because the regimental tailors have put them on. And it is time to march, we ask for nothing more even if we are killed. Galliéni inspires an unshakeable confidence here, and I who have heard of him am a little of this opinion. Joffre, that's all well and good, let's stall but, we're waiting, but no, a pipe is not a tactic, or rather it may be a tactic but it's not a strategy... It's all well and good to make holes and hide in them but what you have to do is move forward. There you go my little rat - I don't know if everything is like that but I've swallowed snakes and rats." The letter becomes erotic: "I want to fuck you or someone else, even if she's a Boche, but no woman from the front, for that matter, because of the pox - Anyway, we're hoping for big events. I'm sending you a sketch of part of a cemetery near here. You don't know where it is, but too bad for my little Lou, it's not true, that I'm jealous like you say. - But naturally I prefer it alone and then I don't have the right to talk about that. But if I knew, which I don't want to say, in reality I would perhaps still love you but would no longer be friends with you - There you go, my little Lou, a little panicked and who is going to leave - I am not writing to you at any longer because you don't write to me at any longer either and it disgusts me a little to write to someone who never writes me long letters although I adore you and kiss you very very naughtily Your Gui"
References: General Correspondence, Edition of V. Martin-Schmets, Champion, II, n° 971, p. 489-490. -- L. Campa, Guillaume Apollinaire, Gallimard, p. 543-572.
On September 27, 1914, Guillaume Apollinaire met Louise de Coligny-Chatillon in a restaurant in Nice. It was love at first sight. He wrote to her the day after they met: "Having told you this morning that I loved you, my neighbor from last night, I now feel less embarrassed about writing it to you (…)". At that time, the young woman of 33, divorced, was very independent, which fascinated the poet. He nicknamed her Lou. Unfortunately, it was a thwarted love, she committed herself then withdrew, not hiding her attachment to another man. At the end of her tether, Apollinaire left to study in Nîmes. She joined him for a week. From this passionate love were born some of the most beautiful poems in the French language. In 1915, he asked her to keep the poems he sent her, with a view to possible publication. Apollinaire joined the 38th Champagne Regiment on April 4, 1915. The day before, she had put an end to their romantic relationship but promised him to remain friends. On the front, Apollinaire still hoped to win her back, writing her hundreds of letters, each more passionate and erotic than the last, but these letters gradually became less frequent and shorter, until January 16, 1916, the date of the last letter. They met once more, by chance, at the Place de l'Opéra in Paris. Apollinaire died on November 9, 1918, at the age of 38, of the Spanish flu. This prodigious correspondence totaled 220 letters and 76 poems. Some of these poems would later be taken up and reworked in the collection Calligrammes. Poèmes à Lou, first entitled Ombre de mon amour, is a posthumous collection of poems
Letter to Lou, written from the Front
L.AS. “ton Gui”, June 7, 1915, to Louise de Coligny-Châtillon, “Lou”; 4 pages in-8.
Letter written from the front in Champagne, which mixes news of his daily life, waiting for the enemy in the trenches, rumors circulating about the fall of the Viviani ministry and his cruel need for love, which unfortunately gets bogged down in a dying love: "My darling little girl, I hardly know what to write to you today except my love. Up at 4 o'clock for the review, delivery of citations to the order, at least that's what I think it's called. Then the rumor goes around that the ministry will fall, Joffre will become Minister of War, Galliéni Generalissimo, and Caillaux President of the Council, and well, although the latter was still a month ago the most disliked man in France, I heard the most intelligent guys, even officers, say: "Long live Caillaux! He will bring us peace. I did not want to believe my ears, but also: "Caillaux, it is peace, still rings in my ears as much in the engineering pits where I was this morning 6 meters from the rocks, as in the artillery cantonments where I am this afternoon. However, I am sure that the Caillaux question aside, Galliéni would be an amazing comfort and the march forward. - We are all dressed in new clothes, and well dressed because the regimental tailors have put them on. And it is time to march, we ask for nothing more even if we are killed. Galliéni inspires an unshakeable confidence here, and I who have heard of him am a little of this opinion. Joffre, that's all well and good, let's stall but, we're waiting, but no, a pipe is not a tactic, or rather it may be a tactic but it's not a strategy... It's all well and good to make holes and hide in them but what you have to do is move forward. There you go my little rat - I don't know if everything is like that but I've swallowed snakes and rats." The letter becomes erotic: "I want to fuck you or someone else, even if she's a Boche, but no woman from the front, for that matter, because of the pox - Anyway, we're hoping for big events. I'm sending you a sketch of part of a cemetery near here. You don't know where it is, but too bad for my little Lou, it's not true, that I'm jealous like you say. - But naturally I prefer it alone and then I don't have the right to talk about that. But if I knew, which I don't want to say, in reality I would perhaps still love you but would no longer be friends with you - There you go, my little Lou, a little panicked and who is going to leave - I am not writing to you at any longer because you don't write to me at any longer either and it disgusts me a little to write to someone who never writes me long letters although I adore you and kiss you very very naughtily Your Gui"
References: General Correspondence, Edition of V. Martin-Schmets, Champion, II, n° 971, p. 489-490. -- L. Campa, Guillaume Apollinaire, Gallimard, p. 543-572.
On September 27, 1914, Guillaume Apollinaire met Louise de Coligny-Chatillon in a restaurant in Nice. It was love at first sight. He wrote to her the day after they met: "Having told you this morning that I loved you, my neighbor from last night, I now feel less embarrassed about writing it to you (…)". At that time, the young woman of 33, divorced, was very independent, which fascinated the poet. He nicknamed her Lou. Unfortunately, it was a thwarted love, she committed herself then withdrew, not hiding her attachment to another man. At the end of her tether, Apollinaire left to study in Nîmes. She joined him for a week. From this passionate love were born some of the most beautiful poems in the French language. In 1915, he asked her to keep the poems he sent her, with a view to possible publication. Apollinaire joined the 38th Champagne Regiment on April 4, 1915. The day before, she had put an end to their romantic relationship but promised him to remain friends. On the front, Apollinaire still hoped to win her back, writing her hundreds of letters, each more passionate and erotic than the last, but these letters gradually became less frequent and shorter, until January 16, 1916, the date of the last letter. They met once more, by chance, at the Place de l'Opéra in Paris. Apollinaire died on November 9, 1918, at the age of 38, of the Spanish flu. This prodigious correspondence totaled 220 letters and 76 poems. Some of these poems would later be taken up and reworked in the collection Calligrammes. Poèmes à Lou, first entitled Ombre de mon amour, is a posthumous collection of poems
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