Jacqueline APOLLINAIRE / Autographed Signed Letters / Guillaume / Trepanation

  

Two autographed postcards signed "Jacqueline" to Angelika Kostrowicka [Paris, January 4 and 6, 1918], 2 p. In-8° Tear at the opening of the second letter (missing signature except for one letter, the "J" of Jacqueline) Small ink stains, some corrections by Jacqueline Apollinaire's hand. Autograph address on the back of each of the two postcards. "Madame Kostrowitzky 10 Villa Lambert Chatou S[eine] et O[ise]".

Bd Saint-Germain 195 Paris 120 January 4, [19]18 7:30 am and January 6, [19]18 6 pm. FROM THE FORMER JACQUES GUÉRIN COLLECTION.

Precious unpublished set showing the strong tensions between Jacqueline Apollinaire and her future mother-in-law at the time of the poet's hospitalization at the beginning of 1918. We have left Jacqueline Apollinaire's text as it is.

First letter: January 4, 1918. Guillaume asked me to tell you to excuse him for not coming to wish you a happy new year.

He went to bed on the 30th after lunch, he only got up this morning to go to the hospital, as he is a soldier, he cannot be treated at home, The major of the place sent him to the hospital where he was trepanned [Villa Molière, military hospital complement of Val de Grâce in Paris]. He has bronchitis, I hope it won't be serious. I had him these past three days with a fever of 39. I will go see him, he tried to write to you this afternoon but the transport tired him so much I'm sure he will not fail to do it tomorrow. I embrace you, Jacqueline" [She adds in the margin] "Here is his address if you want to get ahead of his letter.

Under the name of Apollinaire.

Second letter: January 6, 1918. Despite your unfairness towards me, I remind you if I didn't tell you yesterday that you can see your son at the hospital from 2 to 4 pm but that during this fever period the visit cannot last more than five minutes, our two visits are the only ones allowed. J [acqueline]" [addition at the top of the letter] "I write this so you don't accuse me of wanting to keep Guillaume away from you. It is clear that Jacqueline Apollinaire had problems with accents and capital letters, she probably had only a minimum of primary school education, her style is also somewhat popular for example with the expression: "I had him with a fever of 39".

Gassed during the war, Apollinaire suffered from significant respiratory problems, in addition to the shell fragment he received in the temple and which led to trepanation on May 9, 1916, at Villa Molière. His companion Jacqueline, a nurse with humble origins, probably understood better than anyone how fragile his health was, without fully realizing the extent of the illness, as she mentions bronchitis when it was actually a more serious lung congestion. He was hospitalized at the same place where he had been trepanned a year and a half earlier, at the Val de Grâce military hospital. Jacqueline informs her future mother-in-law here of her son's hospitalization.

Of an irascible nature and not tolerating that her son lived in a common-law relationship with Jacqueline Kolb (they would only marry on May 2, 1918), she probably did not appreciate that Jacqueline took so long to notify her of her son's hospitalization. Jacqueline's response in the second letter confirms this hypothesis. It is also interesting to observe the difference in the opening of the two letters. It was clearly with irritation that Madame de Kostrowitsky opened the second one, tearing off, as by a strange coincidence, Jacqueline's signature. The tension between the two women was such that the poet's mother, after his death, had seals placed on his apartment.

It was also Jacqueline's apartment, and she promptly had the seals removed. Precious autographs [Jacques Guérin Collection], Drouot, November 22, 1985, expert Michel Castaing, n°154 (the notice incorrectly attributes a "double trepanation" - there was only one in reality - to the poet's pulmonary deficiency) - Autograph sale, Drouot, June 5, 1992, expert Frédéric Castaing, n°2 (the notice repeats the same errors as the one from November 22, 1985). Claude Debon for the information she kindly provided us.