Archive > Apollinaire in the Great War 1914-1918 — Review in the Independent

David Hunter’s book Apollinaire In The Great War 1914-18 has received a very positive review in the Independent newspaper. Describing Apollinaire’s motives for joining up and fighting – he wasn’t French but was born in Rome to a Polish mother and unknown father – critic John Clarke quotes Hunter as suggesting that the avant-garde poet, like many of his fellow artists in Paris, “did not see Germany just as a war-like military power but as a culture that seemed antithetical to all they admired.” Apollinaire found much consolation as a soldier in writing erotic letters to his lovers that increased to such a pitch of intensity that even his most sexually liberated lover Loulou “felt the need to reproach him for having developed ‘a taste for vice’.”

Famous for coining the word ‘surrealism’ and for his inventiveness with formal layouts and typefaces – especially in his ‘Caligrammes’ of 1918 – Apollinaire makes a fascinating subject himself in this innovative book. Clarke sums up his review – which you can read on-line here – by saying that:

“Hunter’s book is an engrossing combination of military history, biography and cultural analysis that offers a lucid portrait of an artist in both love and war.”

To purchase a copy of David Hunter’s book, follow the links on our page: Apollinaire in the Great War 1914-1918