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Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE. L.A.S. and a P.S. on the reverse of …
See original version (French)
30
-
Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE. L.A.S. and a P.S. on the reverse of …
See original version (French)
Estimate
€800 - €1,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE.
L.A.S. and a P.S. on the reverse of a picture (to Roger Vailland), (ca 1943-1944).
2 large ff. in-4 long on laid paper, written on (3) pp, in blue ink (traces of folds, paper very slightly creased, palie ink tending to grey) and one in-4 sheet photographed in black (reproduced from the front page of the Illustré national of November 1914) showing the charge to fire of Marshal des Logis Chef Destouches of the 12th Cuirassiers (Céline during the war) which earned him the military medal, large handwritten note on verso (palie blue ink): "At the Tribune des Nations / (si on a bien cure/envie) / d'assassiner et (...)the / French resistance fighters not or by / (uneducated) and idiots! / LFCéline".
Large handwriting, difficult to read, beautiful autograph signatures.
Very interesting letter from Louis-F. Céline to Roger Vailland in the context of the Second World War.
A small handwritten note in pencil identifies the recipient as Roger Vailland - with a spelling error - (1907-1965), a French Resistance fighter, writer and later great reporter and screenwriter. It is the content of the letter sent by Céline that confirms the addressee, making it possible to place its writing quite probably between the summer and the end of 1943.
The writer evokes the battles of 14-18 and 39, inveighing in his very personal style against Vailland the Resistance fighter, from the Champfleury-Mabille network, trying to show him that he too had served France and that his courage was as good as theirs.
No doubt this is why he enclosed this print of him in 1914, enriched with a very personal "aphorism".
The reason for this letter is explained very well in Yves Buin's Céline (Folio, 2022): "One evening in July 1943, ten members of the Champfleury-Mabille resistance network were imprudently gathered in Robert Champfleury's flat on the fourth floor of 4, rue Girardon, below Céline's flat. Céline had just received the caricaturist Ralph Soupault, secretary of the Paris Federation of the P.P.F., and Alain Laubreaux, theatre critic for Je suis partout. The descent of the staircase was noisy, and the group of people in the fourth row could not escape them, watching from the windows as the trio continued their discussion on the pavement. One of the Resistance fighters, Roger Vailland, came up with an idea: "What if we killed Céline? A grenade thrown from the fourth floor would do the trick, but it would have the effect of condemning Champfleury's flat, the hub of various Resistance networks - didn't it host a meeting of the prestigious C.N.R.? - and put him and his companion in danger. Since Céline had been well spotted, when the collaborators paid him another visit, it would be easy to machine-gun them from the little square on Avenue Junot and flee into the night. Two men would be enough. A classic commando action. Neither seen nor known. No more Céline, the infamous, and his hated cronies. This scenario existed. As has been said, Céline was blacklisted and received frequent anonymous threats. As soon as Bagatelles was published, he foresaw a settling of scores in which he would be the victim...".
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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