# Is "Alcools" by Guillaume Apollinaire a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Alcools by Guillaume Apollinaire (Mercure de France, Paris, 1913) is identified by: First edition, achevé d'imprimer 20 April 1913, printed by E. No precedence contest — the census note is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, achevé d'imprimer 20 April 1913, printed by E. Arrault et Cie of Tours for Mercure de France, with the wrappers printed by G. Roy of Poitiers; in-12 (roughly 184 x 115 mm), text pp. [7]–200 followed by table leaves and the printer's imprint
- The frontispiece decides a complete copy: a reproduction of Pablo Picasso's cubist portrait of Apollinaire, with the wrapper of the commercial issue carrying the notice 'avec un portrait de l'auteur par Pablo Picasso' — copies lacking both the wrapper notice and the plate exist and are not the standard commercial issue
- Grands papiers: 23 copies on Hollande van Gelder are the only large-paper copies of the edition; any other 'special paper' claim should be treated as unsupported
- The text throughout is printed without punctuation, a change Apollinaire made at proof stage in autumn 1912 — a punctuated 'Alcools' is not this edition
- Sources give a total printing of 567 copies; that figure recurs but we could not trace it to two demonstrably independent bibliographies, so treat the 23 Hollande as the firm limitation point rather than the total
- Publisher imprint reads Mercure de France, Paris
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Guillaume Apollinaire |
| Publisher | Mercure de France, Paris |
| Year | 1913 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | First edition, achevé d'imprimer 20 April 1913, printed by E. Arrault et Cie of Tours for Mercure de France, with the wrappers printed by… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition, achevé d'imprimer 20 April 1913, printed by E. Arrault et Cie of Tours for Mercure de France, with the wrappers printed by G. Roy of Poitiers; in-12 (roughly 184 x 115 mm), text pp. [7]–200 followed by table leaves and the printer's imprint. The frontispiece decides a complete copy: a reproduction of Pablo Picasso's cubist portrait of Apollinaire, with the wrapper of the commercial issue carrying the notice 'avec un portrait de l'auteur par Pablo Picasso' — copies lacking both the wrapper notice and the plate exist and are not the standard commercial issue. Grands papiers: 23 copies on Hollande van Gelder are the only large-paper copies of the edition; any other 'special paper' claim should be treated as unsupported. The text throughout is printed without punctuation, a change Apollinaire made at proof stage in autumn 1912 — a punctuated 'Alcools' is not this edition. Sources give a total printing of 567 copies; that figure recurs but we could not trace it to two demonstrably independent bibliographies, so treat the 23 Hollande as the firm limitation point rather than the total.

## Is this the true first?
No precedence contest — the census note is confirmed. Alcools was published only in Paris in French, and no English edition followed for roughly half a century: the first complete English translations are William Meredith's (Doubleday, 1964) and Anne Hyde Greet's facing-page version with a foreword by Warren Ramsey (University of California Press, 1965). The 1913 Mercure de France issue is therefore the sole first-edition candidate, and every English-language 'Alcools' is a translation and a 'first thus' at best.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition. Mercure de France reprinted Alcools repeatedly across the twentieth century under the same imprint, so the imprint alone proves nothing: the 20 April 1913 achevé d'imprimer and the Arrault (Tours) printer's imprint are what separate the first from later Mercure printings. Modern Gallimard/Poésie paperbacks and the Wesleyan bilingual edition are reprints.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Alcools* by Guillaume Apollinaire a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/alcools
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.