Apollinaire, Guillaume

The Poet Assassinated

New York, NY: The Broom Publishing Co., 1923. Limited First Edition Thus. Hardcover. "There are men who cannot bring themselves to conform with the rest of human society, who cannot conceive of a secure and honorable career even at the hands of a tolerant age. They flee, they are eternally escaping from the fold by some particularly outrageous or suicidal action. (Arthur) Rimbaud having mastered the art of poetry in his twenties, deserted literature to lead caravans through the African desert. Apollinaire at almost as early an age had also mastered the traditional forms of his art, but with Rimbaud's example before him could not become "an explorer, a trapper, a robber, a hunter, a miner." Possessed of great energy, curiosity, and disrespect, he was from the start thrown upon the side of those who flout authority, court disorder and embrace the glitter and profusion of an intensely mundane existence." (From Biographical Notice by Matthew Josephson, pg. 7) The acclaimed & most influential collection of short stories/fragments by Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), the great French poet, writer & critic who is regarded as among the foremost literary figures of the earlier twentieth century; & was a Founding Father of the Dada & Surrealist movements. First published in 1916, offered here is the first American edition, translated from the French & with an introductory "Biographical Notice" & endnotes by Matthew Josephson (1899-1978), the noted American Journalist, author & translator. Hardcover in original unclipped dust jacket, with frontispiece facsimile portrait-drawing of Apollinaire as a head-bandaged "Second Lieutenant" officer during World War I. As stated on dust jacket front cover at lower right, "This edition is limited/ to twelve hundred and/ fifty numbered copies." At copyright/colophon page is the statement: "Twelve hundred and fifty copies of this book/ were printed on Alexandra Japan Vellum/ and the type distributed." Below this is the printed word "NUMBER" followed by the number "97" hand-written in brown ink. Therefore, this is copy No. 97/1250. From the collection of Russell Taylor Weil (b. 1927), a prominent retired attorney & collector from Washington, DC. A beautiful production; an outstanding Apollinaire collectible in an extremely rare low-numbered limited form, complete & with distinguished provenance. Book in relatively quite fine condition with light rubbing, browning, faint scratching & occasional spotting to front, back cover boards & vellum spine (gilt letters at latter very bright & intact); light wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same incl. very slight loss of surface paper/vellum; moderate browning to side & lower edges of text block (both untrimmed as issued); moderate rubbing, fading & short, faint scratching to dyed (originally grey &/or brown?), trimmed upper edge of same. Interior fine-to-very-fine with mild-to-moderate browning, occasional spotting to blank paste-downs, endpapers & page leaves (the latter mostly at blank margins/edges). Dust jacket fair-to-relatively-good with mild-to-significant rubbing, browning, discoloration, spotting & faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; much less so to thin blank flaps; mild wear & some bumps, creases at edges & corners of same incl. some short, mostly closed tears esp. at upper edges/corners with slight loss of paper; several tiny holes across blank back cover. Fine / Fair- Good. [Item #5875]

Price: $200.00