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Céline, Louis-Ferdinand (1894-1961)

Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE

Ecrivain. Docteur en médecine (Paris, 1924). Son pseudonyme d'écrivain, utilisé en 1932, vient du prénom de sa mère "Céline Guilloux"

Languages

French

Pays

France

Birth

27 mai 1894

Death

1 juillet 1961

Other names

DESTOUCHES Louis-Ferdinand
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597 results
  3. Portrait photographique de Fernand Destouches, père de Louis-Ferdinand Céline
    (Fernand DESTOUCHES) (Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE)
    Portrait photographique de Fernand Destouches, père de Louis-Ferdinand Céline
    A. Emile|Paris s. d. [ca 1900]|6 x 17.20 cm|une photographie au format carte de visite
    Rare period photograph of Fernand Destouches (1865-1932), father of Louis-Ferdinand Céline, carte-de-visite format albumen print mounted on card from studio A. Émile.
    Two small adhesive marks to lower margin of the print, also showing two tiny lacks to upper corners. Manuscript caption on verso.

    One of the principal protagonists of Death on the Installment Plan, the petit-bourgeois Fernand Destouches from Le Havre is transformed by his son into a formidable belching and irascible character:
    « Mon père Auguste, il tripotait, sacrait, jurait, déglinguait chaque fois la douille et le manchon. C'était un gros blond, mon père, furieux pour des riens, avec un nez comme un bébé tout rond, au-dessus de moustaches énormes. Il roulait des yeux féroces quand la colère lui montait. Il se souvenait que des contrariétés. Il en avait eu des centaines. Au bureau des Assurances, il gagnait cent dix francs par mois. » ["My father Auguste, he fiddled, swore, cursed, broke the socket and sleeve every time. He was a big blond, my father, furious over nothing, with a nose like a baby's all round, above enormous mustaches. He rolled fierce eyes when anger rose in him. He only remembered annoyances. He'd had hundreds of them. At the Insurance office, he earned a hundred and ten francs a month."] (Death on the Installment Plan, Denoël & Steele, 1936)
    Throughout his life Céline maintained an atmosphere of fictional romance around his father's life and claimed that he held a baccalaureate and a degree in letters. The family's financial failures as well as his father's aborted ambitions, amplified by Céline into sordid proletarian dramas, served as the cornerstone for Death on the Installment Plan, which he forbade his mother to read.

    Of utmost rarity.
    €2,800
  4. Portrait photographique d'Hermance Delhaye Destouches, grand-mère paternelle de Louis-Ferdinand Céline
    (Hermance DELHAYE DESTOUCHES) (Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE)
    Portrait photographique d'Hermance Delhaye Destouches, grand-mère paternelle de Louis-Ferdinand Céline
    J. Couturier|Paris s. d. [ca 1900]|10.30 x 15.50 cm|une photographie au format carte cabinet
    Photographic portrait of Hermance Delhaye Destouches (1830-1869), paternal grandmother of Louis-Ferdinand Céline, in cabinet card format on albumen paper mounted on cardboard from J. Couturier studio.

    Cardboard slightly trimmed at lower margin. Handwritten caption on verso.

    A bourgeoise of Flemish origin, Céline's grandmother married Auguste Destouches in 1860 and had five children. Upon the premature death of her husband in 1874, at the age of thirty-nine, the provincial Hermance tried her luck in Paris with Amélie, Céline's aunt, where she squandered her fortune and ended up being kept thanks to her daughter's demi-mondaine lifestyle.

    In Mort à crédit, Céline borrows her second name, Caroline, for the character of the grandmother who runs the antique shop on rue Montorgueil. This aspect of the character, however, relates to the shopkeeper life of his maternal grandmother Céline Guillou, whose first name served as the writer's pen name.
    €1,700
  5. Portrait photographique d'Auguste Destouches, grand père paternel de Louis-Ferdinand Céline
    (Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE) (Auguste DESTOUCHES)
    Portrait photographique d'Auguste Destouches, grand père paternel de Louis-Ferdinand Céline
    J. Couturier|Paris s. d. [ca 1900]|10.30 x 15.50 cm|une photographie au format carte cabinet

    Photographic portrait of Auguste Destouches, paternal grandfather of Louis-Ferdinand Céline, after a painting of the period, in cabinet card format on albumen paper mounted on cardboard from J. Couturier studio.
    Cardboard slightly trimmed at lower margin. Handwritten caption on verso.

    €1,700
  6. Lettre à J.B. Sartre ou A l'agité du bocal - précieux exemplaire d'auteur signé par Louis-Ferdinand Céline
    Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE
    Lettre à J.B. Sartre ou A l'agité du bocal - précieux exemplaire d'auteur signé par Louis-Ferdinand Céline
    Pierre Lanauve de Tartas|Paris 1948|14 x 20 cm|en feuilles
    First edition, one of 150 copies on B.F.K. de Rives, the only issue after 50 other deluxe copies.
    Some discreet restorations to spine and covers.
    At the colophon, our copy is exceptionally enriched with the very rare manuscript signature of Louis-Ferdinand Céline, then in exile in Denmark.
    The publisher, Pierre Lanauve de Tartas, specified, just above Céline's signature, "Author's copy".
    This very rare copy indeed bears, printed on the front cover, the initial title of the work: Lettre à J. B. Sartre. We include the flying slip bearing the final title "à l'agité du bocal" which was glued onto the entirety of the print run subsequently distributed.

    Precious author's copy of Céline's scathing response to Jean-Paul Sartre, who, in Réflexions sur la question juive, had accused him of having been paid by the Germans under the Occupation for having held such indefensible antisemitic positions.
    €4,500
  8. Entretiens avec le Professeur Y
    Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE
    Entretiens avec le Professeur Y
    Gallimard|Paris 1955|12 x 19 cm|broché

    First edition, one of 85 numbered copies on pur fil, deluxe copies after 36 on Holland paper.


    Handsome copy.


    The first part of Féerie pour une autre fois having failed to achieve the expected success, Céline wished to surround the release of the second part - Normance - with maximum publicity and restore his reputation after his years of exile in Germany and Denmark. Wishing to distance himself from the solemn form of the publisher's slip, he proposed to Gaston Gallimard this eulogy written in the manner of an imaginary interview between himself and Professor Y alias Colonel Réséda, a prostatic old man. The text of this zany « interviouwe » would be published in several parts in the Nouvelle Revue française in 1954 before appearing in volume form in 1955. The writer speaks with fervor about his style, his conception of literature and vehemently criticizes the literary world and public taste.

    €1,500
  10. Mea culpa suivi de La vie et l'oeuvre de Semmelweis
    Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE
    Mea culpa suivi de La vie et l'oeuvre de Semmelweis
    Denoël & Steele|Paris 1937|11.50 x 18.50 cm|broché
    First edition, one of 125 numbered copies on alfa paper, ours one of 25 hors commerce copies, the only deluxe copies after 15 Holland and 40 pur fil.
    Spine and margins of covers skilfully restored.
    Autograph inscription signed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline "A Madame Marthe Pujol Bien affectueusement L.F. Céline".
    Precious deluxe copy with an autograph inscription by the author.
    €4,500
  11. Les beaux draps - L'exemplaire de Maître Mikkelsen
    Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE
    Les beaux draps - L'exemplaire de Maître Mikkelsen
    Nouvelles Editions Françaises|Paris 1941|11.50 x 19 cm|relié
    First edition, one of 60 numbered copies on Arches laid paper, ours one of 10 hors commerce copies numbered in Roman numerals, deluxe copy.
    Bradel binding in half red morocco, smooth spine, gilt date at foot, pebbled paper boards, covers and spine preserved.

    Provenance: from the library of Maître Mikkelsen, Louis-Ferdinand Céline's lawyer during his exile and incarceration in Denmark.

    We present, accompanying our copy, a certificate signed by the expert Bernard Portheault, attesting to the prestigious provenance of this volume.
    €7,000
  22. Unpublished texts, letters and articles - everything you've always wanted to know...
    Cahiers Céline : collection complète
    Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE
    Cahiers Céline : collection complète
    Gallimard|Paris 1976-1988|14 x 20.50 cm|8 volumes brochés

    First editions, with no deluxe copies printed (except for No. 7) for each volume.
    Our complete set comprises:
    Cahiers Céline 1: Céline et l'actualité littéraire 1932-1957.
    Cahiers Céline 2: Céline et l'actualité littéraire 1957-1961
    Cahiers Céline 3: Semmelweis et autres écrits médicaux
    Cahiers Céline 4: Lettres et premiers écrits d'Afrique 1916-1917
    Cahiers Céline 5: Lettres à des amies
    Cahiers Céline 6: Lettres à Albert Paraz 1947-1957
    Cahiers Céline 7: Céline et l'actualité 1933-1961
    Cahiers Céline 8: Progrès suivi de Oeuvres pour la scène et l'écran.
    Iconography.
    First endpaper of the first volume shadowed due to a press clipping.
    Rare complete set.

    €600
  34. Lettre autographe signée à son ami lyonnais Charles Deshayes "... l'affaire Céline me paraît le meilleur comme l'Affaire Dreyfus..."
    Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE
    Lettre autographe signée à son ami lyonnais Charles Deshayes "... l'affaire Céline me paraît le meilleur comme l'Affaire Dreyfus..."
    Korsør (Danemark) [Korsør] 12 Novembre (1949)|21 x 34 cm|deux pages sur un feuillet
    Letter autograph signed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, two pages, envelope attached to Charles Deshayes, 25 lines in blue ink, dated November 12 (1949) and written since his Danish exile Korsor.

    Traces of central folds inherent to a letter slipped into an envelope that we enclose to the letter.

    Louis-Ferdinand Céline begins his letter in the grip of doubts and insults: "It's a very ugly shot, what to try, I can not avoid myself nowhere, I have complaints of counterfeiting That's all, all these people are basically afraid, they'll never admit it.
    Then, in postscript, he thinks that he may have found a publisher "(very possibly") a possible (?) Publisher Valby and that he will pass through a Parisian friend for the contact "I write about it to my good friend Dr. Becart" and recommend to his correspondent to also write to him.
    He continues his letter by evoking concerns of writing: "I changed your title.By the love of God leave the night quiet! And surtoutr the end! It is a nightmare" and ends with a scathing, paranoid and all Céline remarks : "The Celine affair seems to me the best like the Dreyfus Affair"
    €2,500
  36. Féerie pour une autre fois II - Normance
    Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE
    Féerie pour une autre fois II - Normance
    Gallimard|Paris 1954|14 x 21 cm|relié sous chemise et étui
    First edition, one of 45 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the tirage de tête
    Autograph inscription from Louis-Ferdinand Céline to his friend Pierre Duverger, the only photographer to have taken color photographs of Céline
    Quality blueish paper covers, sunned (as is often the case)
    Ex libris pasted onto foot of half-title
    This copy has a half black morocco chemise, spine in six compartments, date to foot, and a slipcase edged in black morocco, both by Goy & Vilaine.
    €10,000
  39. Oeuvres
    Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE
    Oeuvres
    Club de l'honnête homme|Paris 1981-1983|18 x 26.50 cm|9 volumes en reliures de l'éditeur sous étuis
    Edition illustrated with original artwork by Raymond Moretti, one of the numbered copies on laid paper, the only printing along with 300 copies on Rives vellum.
    Publisher's Bradel bindings in full chocolate imitation morocco, smooth spines, covers decorated with gilt interlacing, mustard paper endpapers and pastedowns, top edges gilt, mustard cardboard slipcases bordered with chocolate imitation morocco.
    Introduction by Frédéric Vitoux.
    Set illustrated with numerous original color compositions by Raymond Moretti.
    Handsome complete set in 9 volumes.
    €600
  68. Un feuillet autographe manuscrit pour D'un château l'autre : "... c'est le voyage qui m'a fait damner ! personne n'a pardonné le Voyage. La nation française est essentiellement vaniteuse"
    Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE
    Un feuillet autographe manuscrit pour D'un château l'autre : "... c'est le voyage qui m'a fait damner ! personne n'a pardonné le Voyage. La nation française est essentiellement vaniteuse"
    Meudon 1954|21 x 27 cm|une page sur un feuillet

    Manuscrit autographe signé de Louis-Ferdinand Céline rédigé au stylo à bille bleu sur un feuillet de papier blanc numéroté 83 en angle supérieur gauche, 14 lignes comportant de nombreuses ratures.
    Une pliure transversale. Petites rousseurs en marges du feuillet.
    « depuis le voyage mon compte est bon ! Si je m'étais pas appelé Destouches ça pouvait s'arranger. Je me serais appelé Ferdingisky pas né à Courbevoie »
    D'un château l'autre, premier volet d'une trilogie romanesque suivi de Nord et Rigodon, est un roman de Louis-Ferdinand Céline publié en 1957 aux éditions Gallimard.
    Louis-Ferdinand Céline y dresse un parallèle entre sa vie contemporaine et son œuvre — en tant que médecin et écrivain, pauvre, maudit et boudé par sa clientèle — et sa vie à Sigmaringen où se sont réfugiés le gouvernement vichyste en exil et de nombreux collaborateurs fuyant l'avancée des Alliés.

    Sold
  69. Un feuillet autographe manuscrit pour D'un château l'autre : "... c'était une époque plus sensible et plus jouisseuse que la nôtre... L'époque des yoles et des romans des rameurs à moustaches"
    Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE
    Un feuillet autographe manuscrit pour D'un château l'autre : "... c'était une époque plus sensible et plus jouisseuse que la nôtre... L'époque des yoles et des romans des rameurs à moustaches"
    Meudon 1954|21 x 27 cm|une page sur un feuillet

    Manuscrit autographe signé de Louis-Ferdinand Céline rédigé au stylo à bille bleu sur un feuillet de papier blanc numéroté 265 en angle supérieur gauche, 15 lignes comportant de nombreuses ratures.
    Une pliure transversale, taches en tête et en pied du feuillet.
    « Montmarte et la Tour Eiffel... et la grande joue l'autre côté le mont Valérien. Vous voyez le panorama.»
    Quelques variantes avec le texte définitif.
    D'un château l'autre, premier volet d'une trilogie romanesque suivi de Nord et Rigodon, est un roman de Louis-Ferdinand Céline publié en 1957 aux éditions Gallimard.
    Louis-Ferdinand Céline y dresse un parallèle entre sa vie contemporaine et son œuvre — en tant que médecin et écrivain, pauvre, maudit et boudé par sa clientèle — et sa vie à Sigmaringen où se sont réfugiés le gouvernement vichyste en exil et de nombreux collaborateurs fuyant l'avancée des Alliés.

    Sold
  77. Voyage au bout de la nuit
    Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE
    Voyage au bout de la nuit
    Denoël & Steele|Paris 1932|12 x 19 cm|broché sous coffret
    | A tribute from the master of literary slang to a writer of popular fiction |
    First edition, one of 200 service de presse (advance) copies with service de presse printed on spine, without publisher's catalogue at rear. Very first issue printed even before deluxe copies.
    Rare and precious signed and inscribed copy by Louis-Ferdinand Céline to writer and lyricist Henry Jagot, known as Raoul Tabosse and Frédéric Valade.
    Very discreet restorations to top spine-end, head of joint and margins of the front cover.
    Born in 1858, Henri Jagot was a cabaret and military songwriter, historian of the Great Wars, as well as a popular novelist and author of children's literature. Céline discovered his work during his early years. This inscription on one of the rare press copies of his first novel bears witness to an obvious literary complicity between Céline, inventor of literary slang, and Jagot, master of the colloquial language who inspired him.

    Our copy is housed in a custom clamshell box signed by Julie Nadot reproducing the original cover and spine of the book.
    Sold
  84. Manuscrit autographe inédit d'une version primitive non retenue pour D'un château l'autre
    Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE
    Manuscrit autographe inédit d'une version primitive non retenue pour D'un château l'autreEarly draft of D'un chateau l'autre [Castle to Castle], unpublished autograph manuscript
    s. l. • [Meudon] 1954 (entre l'été 1954 et janvier 1955)|26.50 x 33.50 cm|24 feuillets montés sur onglets et reliés
    Early draft of D'un château l'autre [Castle to Castle], unpublished autograph manuscript, n.p. [Meudon] 1954 (summer 1954-januray 1955), 26,5x33,5cm, 24 leaves mounted on boards, bound.
    Exceptional set of 24 manuscript leaves by Louis-Ferdinand Céline from D'un château l'autre [Castle to Castle], mounted leaves under protective paper. Every page is numbered in Céline's hand in the upper left corner (from 632 to 634, 636 to 651 and 653 to 657), and written in blue ballpoint pen. They feature the usual characteristics of Céline's manuscripts: stains, traces of paper clips... important variations to the published text, crossed-out lines and words, modifications, and repetitions.
    Bound in full black shagreen, gilt title and author on spine, gilt mention “manuscrit autographe” on the first cover's bottom right corner.
    A splendid working manuscript, typical of Celinian writing.
    "Céline began writing D'un château l'autre in the summer of 1954 and finished it in the spring of 1957. [...] At Gallimard, we were kept informed of the manuscript's progress: "I am at the 1300th page, 50th draft...I can think without foolish optimism that I will soon reach the end (about a month)." A few weeks later, the book was nearly complete: "My “bear” is here, it's fine lacework." Completed in March, the book went on sale on June 20, 1957." (F. Gibault, Céline. 1944-1961 - Cavalier de l'apocalypse). This manuscript is one of these numerous "drafts" and was not chosen in the final version of the text. It is most likely one of the earliest versions written before 1955.
    It contains a long unpublished passage about the "shivering" Nazi-sympathizing Frenchmen ("collabos") exiled in Sigmaringen. Although he was part of them, Céline paints a very harsh portrait of the thousand French collaborators who took refuge in the former Hohenzollern castle. He reworked the passage extensively, erased it, and wrote it again. This violent excerpt will ultimately be left out of the published novel altogether. Céline describes the lavish apartments of Baron Commandant von Raumnitz. In the Gallimard published version, the description Raumnitz's "secret rooms" will be cut short and very much toned down. Some of the pages stray from the storyline and evoke present-day events: in the grip of paranoia, Céline gives derogatory nicknames to the most prominent figures of French intelligentsia, namely Jean-Paul Sartre (“Tartre”), and Louis Aragon renamed "Larengon". Some "characters" appear in our version under their real names, especially Jean Paulhan who will be nicknamed Norbert Loukoum in the published version after a quarrel between the two writers. This new name will appear in early 1955.
    Remarkable unpublished manuscript draft of D'un château l'autre.
    Sold
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