Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE. 7L.A.S. "LF" or "LFC",... Lot 393

Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE. 7L.A.S. "LF" or "LFC", [Korsør February-March 1950], to his friend the publisher Jean-Gabriel Daragnès; 23pages fol. Reaction and comments after his conviction. [On February 21, Céline was sentenced in absentia to one year's imprisonment, a fine of 50,000 francs, national degradation and indignity, and confiscation of half his possessions]. February 24th. "Not everything has been said yet. Perhaps Naud will be able to mitigate the consequences of this caper. You were all truly admirable! It was like playing the trumpet against a wall. And even that one cracked a little. It's a miracle. Oh, I expected much worse"... But he hesitates to return to France... 27th [February]. "We could have breathed, so much friendship, bravery, genius, in my defense, from so many friends, and especially from you, deserved a little result... Alas! the pack of communists here revived by Paris unleashes another furious campaign to have me expelled - which means in plain English, in the state I'm in, condemned to a year: Fresnes, right from the border"... March 1. Draft of a "little brochure with no blah, blah, blah. Official summary of the Céline Affair accusations defenses verdict", with the image of the cuirassier... March 5 [March]. "The press as a whole has been hateful and venomous and promising assassination. I was expecting it"... He recounts at length his arrest and imprisonment in Denmark, and complains about his lawyer Mikkelsen and Marcel Aymé: "I'm a little pissed off at Marcel for pouting, he who absolutely pointed me out to the assassins in '44! to save his own ass! Don't bullshit me! I've got the memory of an elephant! He's stayed in his chancelleries like all the other ruffians! I'm the one who's bleeding - for everyone - and it's not over yet, alas! March 6. "It was 5 years ago today that my poor mother died in Paris of grief, alone and blind, and in what an atmosphere! [...] She was a very old Parisian, born Rue aux ours - a lace worker - a martyr - all her life!" He still hasn't received the judgment: "ça traine traine traine" He asks Daragnès to come by car with Maître Naud... 7th [March]. "You frighten me, you frighten us, even with the vague prospect of having to appear before a court! Oh, a thousand deaths instead and right now! Putting us back in a trap after having left ¾ of our miserable lives (and at the price of what torments) to baffle jackals! [...] I'd rather endure all the unpleasantness possible here (if I'm not chased away) than to see myself again in France between two cops!"... There is talk of obtaining an "equivalence" concerning his detention in Denmark. 21st [March]. He will have the tenant farmer's daughter make carpets for Daragnès and Naud, despite the fact that "there's no such thing as Danish artistic folklore - it's a nation of strict rednecks". He still hasn't received a copy of his judgment: "Sabotage of course, gniangnianterie voulue des bureaux Vendôme, et des bureaux d'Ici! So Palestinian! and Mik! so Palestinophile! resistanophile!"...