Guglielmo Alberto Wladimiro Apollinare de Kostrowitsky – i.e. Guillaume Apollinaire – was one of the most charismatic, multi-faceted and influential figures in the artistic life of Europe during the early twentieth century. Though his reputation is most firmly founded on his poetry, he was a writer of stories, of several stage plays, of art criticism, and of pornographic novels. A gregarious man, he knew the artists who mattered in the Paris of the Belle Epoque, a period when that city’s status as world cultural capital was taken seriously. One critic (Roger Shattuck) labelled Apollinaire the impresario of the avant-garde. This article will give an account of his colourful life, closely bound up with his artistic achievements.
Apollinaire’s beginnings were unusual, as the lengthy baptismal entry above suggests. He was born, illegitimate, in Rome in...
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Citation: Sorrell, Martin. "Guillaume Apollinaire". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 April 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=128, accessed 15 December 2025.]
