Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE

First edition on ordinary paper. Half cherry-red morocco over marbled paper boards by P. Goy & C. Vilaine, spine in six compartments, gilt date to foot of spine, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, covers and spine preserved.
Autograph inscription from Louis-Ferdinand Céline to Françoise Fontaine "... hommage à la beauté (réputée) [in homage to the (well-known) beauty]."
With folding frontispiece.
A very good copy in a nice binding, complete with a part of its advertising label, mounted on guards. 

First edition on ordinary paper with all the characteristics of the first issue.
Spine lightly sunned at head and foot, insignificant clear dampstain to margins of first gathering.

Later edition.
Autograph inscription signed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline to Francis Planque : "... au réalisateur courageux et malheureux...[to the courageous and unhappy director…]"
Tiny wormholes to upper cover, a pale marginal dampstain to head of lower cover. 

First edition, one of 100 numbered copies on alfa paper, this one of the few nominative hors commerce copies, printed specially for Jean Ballard, the only large paper copies with 10 on Arches paper, also nominative.

Handsome autograph inscription from Louis-Ferdinand Céline to Jean Ballard, director of Cahiers du Sud, which published extracts from Voyage just before its publication, as well as one of the longest reviews devoted to the work.

Few people recognized at first the importance of this debut novel. Céline pitched the manuscript to Gallimard, Bossart, Figuière and of course Denoël, who were the only ones to show any real enthusiasm. Nonetheless, they printed only 2,000 copies and reached out to a number of reviews to publish extracts, including Cahiers du Sud, Europe, and Monde a few days before publication. Nominative copies on Arches or alfa paper, reserved for those close to the author, are even more sought after than the 110 large paper copies commercially sold. Unnumbered for the most part, they have still not been counted precisely. Therefore, we still only know the copies of R. Beckers, M. Dorian, J. Ajalbert, L. Daudet, L. and M. Descaves (on Arches), R.-L. Doyon, L. Hennique, G. Picard, Rosny jeune, C. Dullin and V. Moremans, R. Gallier and J. Ballard. These copies do not have the publisher's advertising brochure at end. 

This copy is in a box by Julie Nadot, reproducing the original cover of the work. §A very good and rare copy. 

Published in the same year as the first.
Red morocco binding by Patrice Goy, spine in six compartments with date at foot, marbled endpapers, covers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, slipcase trimmed with red morocco, marbled paper boards.
Inscribed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline to the movie maker Abel Gance: “à mon ami Abel Gance fidèle dans un voyage autour de tout. LF Destouches [To my friend Abel Gance, faithful in our voyage around everything. LF Destouches].”
A few marginal reader's marks in pencil at end.
A friend of Gance's since 1917, Céline bore him a deep admiration: “In a hundred years, so much more of your films will remain than of my big funerary drum.” The respect was mutual and Gance was the first to envisage a cinematic adaptation of Voyage in November 1932, a project to which Céline became very attached. Abel Gance bought the rights from Denoël for 300,000 francs. An impossible task, he abandoned the project a year later. He was succeeded by Claude Autant-Lara, Michel Audiard, Sergio Leone, Federico Fellini, and François Dupeyron...all of them failed, though not for lack of enthusiasm (“The Voyage is not just a film, it's a duty – we owe the old man everything!” – Audiard) or the efforts of Céline himself. In 1934, he visited Hollywood to “sign an option for six months with Lester Yard...Of all the agents, he seemed the most able, the most cunning”).
As to whether it was a missed opportunity or an impossible challenge, Céline concluded: “I'm leaving nothing to cinema! I've sent it packing...with its shifty melodrama...its simili-sensible! I've managed to capture all the emotion already...” (Entretiens avec le professeur Y). Following this exchange with his inflammatory friend, Abel Gance destroyed a large part of their correspondence, and this inscription thus is one of the rare witnesses of the meeting of two of the pioneers of modern artistic expression.
A fine and unique copy, perfectly presented.