Guillaume Apollinaire

Guillaume Apollinaire (in French pronounced [ɡijom apɔliˈnɛʁ]) (August 26, 1880 – November 9, 1918) was a Frenchpoet, writer, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother.

Among the foremost poets of the early 20th century, he is credited with coining the word surrealism and writing one of the earliest works described as surrealist, the play Les Mamelles de Tirésias (1917, later used as the basis for an operain 1947).

Two years after being wounded in World War I, he died at 38 of the Spanish flu during a pandemic.