A moving letter from Guillaume Apollinaire on his deathbed.

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880.1918)

Autographed letter signed to Lucien Wahl, in the newspaper L'Information.

Two and a half pages in-8° on letterhead of the Val-de-Grâce military hospital.

Defects in the margins and restorations to the folds.

Autographed address and postal cancellations.

[Paris. January 23, 1918, according to the postmark].

"I was one step away from death."

A moving letter from Apollinaire on the road to death, but still absorbed in his artistic work.

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My dear friend, I am better but still bedridden. I hope to get up soon. The day I had to go to the hospital because the military couldn't treat me at home, I went to the offices of L'Information [the newspaper Wahl contributed to] , but I didn't have the strength to go upstairs. That's why I scribbled the address of the hospital I was going to on a scrap of paper and gave it to a cyclist, asking her to give it to Christian, but she gave it to Mr. [?] who wrote to me at the same time as you. But I don't want to tire this good man, nor you either, dear friend. Remember, I'm at the far end of Auteuil. However, I thought that Christian, the driver, who is still in good shape, would come to see me. Greetings to everyone, to Mora, to my fellow translators, to Mr. Mazeran, to the young ladies, etc. And tell Christian to come and see me. Don't forget the papers the Revue is waiting for , and send me a note. I was very close to death. My dear friend, Guillaume Apollinaire.

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On January 3, 1918, three days after finishing the printing of *The Breasts of Tiresias*,  Apollinaire was struck down by pulmonary congestion. Hospitalized again, he was only able to get up at the beginning of February and remained under treatment until May 13. After the trepanation of 1917, death hovered around the poet.

He was taken by the Spanish flu a few months later, on November 9, 1918.