APOLLINAIRE, Jacqueline, born Kolb (1891-1967)

APOLLINAIRE, Jacqueline, born Kolb (1891-1967)

Two autograph card-letters signed « Jacqueline » to Angelika de Kostrowitsky
[Paris, 4th and 6th January 1918], 2 p. in-8°
Tears at opening on second letter (missing signature but the “J” of Jacqueline)
Some ink stains, some correction by Jacqueline Apollinaire

Autograph address on the back of each of the two letter cards
« Madame Kostrowitzky
10 Villa Lambert
Chatou S[eine] et O[ise] »

Postal marks :
Bd Saint-Germain 195 Paris 120 4 janvier [19]18 7h30 et 6 janvier [19]18 18 h

FROM THE JACQUES GUÉRIN COLLECTION

A precious unpublished set of two letters, testifying to the strong tensions between Jacqueline Apollinaire and her future mother-in-law at the time of the poet’s hospitalization, at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
Thursday 4th January 1918

« Chère Madame,
Guillaume me prie de vous dire de l’excuser de n’être pas allé vous souhaiter la bonne année. l s’est couché le 30 après déjeuner, il ne s’est levé que ce matin pour aller a l’hôpital, comme il est militaire, il ne peut pas etre soigner a la maison, Le major de la place la envoyé à l’hopital où il a été trépané [Villa Molière, hôpital militaire complémentaire du Val de Grâce in Paris]. Il a une bronchite, j’espère que ce ne sera pas grave. Je l’ai eu ces trois derniers jours avec 39 de fièvre. Demain j’apporterai j’irai le voir, il a essayé de vous écrire cet après-midi mais le transport l’a tellement fatigué je suis sûre qu’il ne manquera pas de le faire demain. Je vous embrasse Jacqueline »
[She adds on margin] « Voici son adresse si vous voulez devancer sa lettre. Sous le nom d’Apollinaire. »

Second letter
6th January 1918

« Chère Madame,
Malgré votre injustice a mon égard, je vous rappelle si je ne vous l’ai pas dit hier que vous pouvez voir votre fils a l’hopital de 2 à 4 H mais que pendant cette periode de fievre la visite ne pourra durer plus de cinq minutes nos deux visites sont d’ailleurs les seules autorisées.
Respectueusement. J[acqueline] »
[she adds on upper margin] « Je mets ce mot pour que vous ne m’accusiez pas de vouloir éloigner Guillaume de vous. »

Gassed during the war, Apollinaire suffered from severe respiratory problems, in addition to the shrapnel he had received in the temple, which had caused him to be trepanned on 9 May 1916 at the Villa Molière. His companion Jacqueline, a nurse of modest origins, probably understood better than anyone how fragile her health was, but she did not take the full measure of the problem, since she mentioned bronchitis when it was a pulmonary congestion, which was more serious. He was hospitalized in the same place where he had been trepanned a year and a half earlier, at the complementary military hospital of Val de Grâce.
Jacqueline informs her future mother-in-law of her son’s hospitalization. Irascible by nature and unable to bear the fact that her son was living in a marital relationship with Jacqueline Kolb (they did not marry until May 2, 1918), she probably did not appreciate that Jacqueline had taken so long to inform 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 unsealing between the two letters. It was evidently with ulceration that Madame de Kostrowitsky opened the second, snatching Jacqueline’s signature, as if by a strange coincidence. The tension between the two women was such that the poet’s mother, after his death, had her apartment sealed. It was also Jacqueline’s, who hastened to have them removed.