Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE. 7 L.A.S. "LFC" or "LF"... Lot 388

Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE. 7 L.A.S. "LFC" or "LF" (one "Louis"), [Copenhagen late 1948-early 1949], to his friend the publisher Jean-Gabriel Daragnès; 21pages in-fol. On reactions to Albert Paraz's Gala des vaches... Monday [late November or early December 1948]. Dr. Clément Camus is not so badly treated: "Paraz is vicious, he uses me to sort out his enemies. That's the game you know so well. Literary crabbedness. But you're not touched. If I'd made too much of your apology, I'd have compromised you, stupidly. Same tactic for Scandale [...] Don't get wet in a foolish way. [...] Marie Justice is a villain. Nothing to be done. All these people are acting in bad faith, so what can we expect? Only a Flood! The key to my miserable fate is the republication somewhere... of my books. Monnier seems enthusiastic and serene. We'll see. But I've seen so many enthusiasts go soft. [...] I'm working my ass off on Féerie, but I'll need more time, years, if I'm going to live through them. I can't stand up in the air anymore. I'm so crippled I can't put on my jacket. [...] Marie Bell is threatening to break through all the dams and icebergs and come to see me against all my advice"... December 14: "After all, perhaps my Defense adjunct to Foudres wouldn't hurt. Foudres on its own is a bit thin. [...] Henri Mahé, too, is furious, a charming hideout, a fulminating anti-Semite (in the bedroom) of Paraz's book!"... December 16. "Dr. Camus threatened Paraz that he'd go and pourfendre him in his sana, and then he gave it up. Comedy! He doesn't threaten to go and criticize Sartre, who has denounced me as a salaried agent of the Gestapo for 4 years! Mr. Lecache, who's been calling for my head for 10 years, or the inquisitors, the Black List, the old fable, eternal alas! There are very few people who aren't on the side of the wolf! You and three others, in all! And how many comedies, similes, and breathtaking feats, to avoid admitting this old truth, so simple! Oh, how Popol would have been relieved of a great burden if they had hanged me and Le Vigan! January 3, 1949]. Thanks for the evening Daragnès spent with Fritch [Hartvig Frisch], Danish Minister of Public Instruction: "it was a question of seducing Fritch into defending my cause here, as a sectarian social-democrat of a staunch philosemite (because situaaation) he was less than warm..."; he's a specialist in Thucydides... As for the À l'agité du bocal letter, "make it appear - if that's what you mean. It's all yours. And the ballets too. [...] Question of drafting another defense. I'm waiting for the sentence. It's so annoying, all this polemics with these scoundrels. It bores the hell out of me! [...] I'm already having so much trouble pursuing Féerie - to have to deal with these idiots again! What a dirty chore!"... He mentions the "very nice Arletty"... January 28. "What are you doing with Scandale? If Frémanger behaves properly, maybe we could give it to him? He must already be editing Casse-Pipe for me, but he has to hurry up"... He hesitates to leave for Spain: "it smells a bit like Sigmaringen across the mountains! There's already a lot of rump stretching towards the next monarch!"... February 5. "Obviously it's scoundrels and co. They'll steal everything. A little confidence in Frémanger, but I'm warning him to pay up a little"... 15th [February]. He asks for copies of Foudres et flèches "for local rednecks". Nothing changes in France: "The jolt has to come from outside. Then it's the collapse and the escape, the curse of all the vermin!"...