APOLLINAIRE Guillaume Calligrammes. Jeu d’épreuves après correction.

Important galley proofs after correction of 61 poems for the publication of Calligrammes with the blind stamp on the first leaf “2ème épreuve, [date] à retourner”.

The numbering, written in blue pencil, most probably by the prototypist, is consistent, even if some poems are missing compared to the edition.

These proofs contain 60 of the 84 poems published in 1918 for the first edition of Calligrammes. The poem “Paris”, appearing here in the section “Tête étoilée”, was not part of the definitive edition.

The proofs contain, in this order :

For Ondes : “Liens”, “Arbre”, “Les Fenêtres”, “Tours”, “Lundi rue Christine”, “Prophéties”, “Le musicien de Saint-Merry”, ” Un fantôme de nuées”.

For Étendards : “Fumée”, ” A Nîmes”, “Vieille”, “C’est Lou qu’elle ne nomme”.

For Case d’Armons : “Reconnaissance”, “Fête”, “Saillant”, “Guerre”, “Mutation”, “Oracles”, “14 Juin 1915”, “De la Batterie de Tir”, “Echelon”, “Les Saisons”, “Vers le Sud”, “Les soupirs du servant de Dakar”, Toujours”, “La Nuit d’Avril 1915”.

For Lueurs des Tirs : “L’inscription anglaise”, “Photographie”, “Fusée”, “Désir”, “A L’Italie”, “La Grace exilée, “La boucle retrouvée”, “Refus de la Colombe”, “Les feux du bivouac”, “Les Grenadines repentantes”, “Tourbillon de Mouches”, “L’adieu du cavalier”, “La Traversée”, “Il y a”, “Le Palais du tonnerre”, “Du coton dans les oreilles”, “Le chant d’amour”, “Chant de l’horizon en Champagne”, “Dans l’abri caverne”.

For La Tête étoilée : “Carte postale”, “Chef de section”, “Exercice”, “L’Espionne”, “Merveille de la Guerre”, “Aussi bien que les cigales”, “Souvenirs”, “Chevaux de frise”, “Simultanéités”, “L’Avenir”, “Le vigneron champenois”, “Un oiseau chante”, “Paris”, “Le Départ”, “Tristesse d’étoile”, “La Victoire”.

All these poems are printed consecutively, with no page breaks between the pieces, and the page layout does not follow the order of the definitive edition. For example, the poem “Arbre”, which is the 2nd in our proofs, is the 5th in the definitive collection, and “Tour”, which is in 4th position in our copy, appears in 13th position in the first edition.
The section “Obus couleur de Lune” does not exist in our proofs. The poems in this division are divided between “Lueurs de Tirs” and “La Tête étoilée”.

The dedications for the poem “Arbre” (“A Frédéric Boutet”), and “A Nîmes (A Émile Léonard”), do not exist in the proofs, but were added later.

In the proofs, the poem “14 Juin 1915” is dedicated “A maman”, but this reference disappears in the printed version. Similarly, the poem “Echelon” is dedicated “Au maréchal des logis Piot” in the proofs, but this reference disappears in the printed version.

In the proofs, the poem “Toujours” is dedicated to “Louise Faure-Favier”; the tribute becomes “à Madame Faure-Favier” in the definitive edition.

The title of the poem “Prophéties” becomes “Sur les Prophéties” in the definitive version, and “C’est Lou qu’elle ne nomme” becomes “C’est Lou qu’on la nommait” and “Tristesse d’étoile” becomes “Tristesse d’une étoile”.
The spelling of the title of the poem “Echelon” changes slightly in the final version to incorporate the accent in the capital letter.

The typographical layout of the penultimate line of “La Nuit d’Avril 1915” changes in the final version.

Most of the missing poems are calligrams, with the exception of “Les Collines”, “A travers l’Europe”, “Ombre”, “Océan de terre”, “Chant de l’honneur” and “La Jolie Rousse”.

Given the difficulty of printing calligrams, it is possible that they were part of another set of independent proofs. What’s more, most of them had already been published in Les Soirées de Paris, or in the magazine SIC, which meant that the Mercure de France typesetter did not have to do this tedious work again.

This was the case for “Paysage” (published under the title “Paysage animé”, n°27, August 1914), “Lettre-Océan” (n°25, 15 June 1914), “La Cravate et la montre” (n°27, August 1914), “Cœur couronne et miroir” (n°27, August 1914), “Voyage” (no. 27, August 1914), “Il pleut” (no. 12, SIC, December 1916), “2e canonnier conducteur” (prepublished as “Feldpost brief”, Der Mistral, Zurich, no. 1, 3 March 1915).

The paper on which these proofs are printed differs from that of the original edition, which is a relatively stiff and brittle wood paper. Our proofs are printed on fine wove paper, which is much softer than the paper used in the definitive edition.

Extremely rare proofs on uncommon paper that have already incorporated corrections from the first set of proofs held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.