Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire (; Rome, 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918, Paris) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother.
Among the foremost poets of the early 20th century, he is credited with coining the word Surrealism and writing one of the earliest works described as surrealist, the play The Breasts of Tiresias (1917, used as the basis for a 1947 opera). Two years after being wounded in World War I, he died in the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 at age 38.
Famous quotes by guillaume apollinaire:
“Memories are hunting horns
Whose sound dies on the wind.”
—Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918)
“I love men, not for what unites them, but for what divides them, and I want to know most of all what gnaws at their hearts.”
—Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918)
“To insist on purity is to baptize instinct, to humanize art, and to deify personality.”
—Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918)