Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE. 11L.A.S. "LF" or "LFC",... Lot 394

Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE. 11L.A.S. "LF" or "LFC", [Korsør and Copenhagen May-June 1950], to his friend the publisher Jean-Gabriel Daragnès; 24pages in-fol. On his wife's illness, hospitalization and operation. [On May 16, Lucette was hospitalized in Copenhagen; she underwent surgery for a fibroid on May 19, and again on June 8]. May 5. "Suddenly, I'm completely alarmed by Lucette's health. She is so healthy, so lively, so athletic, and I see a small symptom in her gynecology which, as a doctor, alarms me. If in three days everything has not calmed down, I'll send her by train to Paris" to be examined by a friendly surgeon, Dr. Tailhefer. "I want to be sure. You have no idea how worried I am. [...] It's coming down on me like a bolt of lightning - just like all the rest of the rubbish! 6th: "We've given up on Paris for the time being. Lucette is too afraid to leave me here alone. So she'll go to Copenhagen on Monday for a check-up. I'll join her if any seriousness is confirmed"... The 8th. Lucette has an ovarian cyst; Céline will stay with Mikkelsen in Copenhagen while she is hospitalized. 9th: "We're becoming record holders for misfortunes! It would be funny if it weren't for Lucette! Poor thing! I'm not going to leave her for a second"... 10th: "Lucette will enter the Genthof Syehus Hospital in Copenhagen on the 17th for an operation. We'll be in town on the 16th. I'll be staying at Mik's [...] Oh you know, we're so used to horror that it's just one more act. But it's ugly because it's Lucette. I'd prefer that"... 11th: "I've given up on having her operated on in Paris. You can see me in Fresnes and her in surgery. It was madness"... Saturday [20]. "All is well. Lucette was operated on yesterday morning. Pedunculated fibrous cyst [...] Not serious, very favorable prognosis. She'll be as good as new, nothing to worry about. The first good news we've had in 10 years! What miraculous luck!"... 21st: "I'm writing to you from the hospital, that is, from Lucette's room. God, she's suffering! They've invented the system of early post-operative rising, i.e. immediately after the operation. She's already walking 100 meters with the nurse. You know how brave and uncomplaining she is, but God, it's excruciating [...] I'm one of those doctors who would gladly put all infants to sleep out of horror at the suffering that awaits them. [...] The three of us, Bébert, Lucette and I, have formed a sort of Montmartre "cell" that persists, through countless horrors and infinite, and so varied, pain"... June 1st. "Lucette is better. This avatar of abscess on suture created by early rising etc. seems to be progressing well. No fever". He asks for a bathrobe for Lucette... Sunday 11: "My poor Lucette is a little better this morning. [...] Monnier is a good friend who I think we can count on. He does wonders with these miserable elements! As for Frémanger, he's a dirty little rascal who will of course succeed. It's always easy to skin the sick, to finish off the dying. [...] Yes, if we get out of this we'll go back to France! Oh no more exile! We can't. Long live Père-Lachaise! Friday [23]. "Lucette is much better. But it's not the running yet, of course. At last the nightmare is receding a little. She'll be out of hospital in a week. [...] We'll be back in Korsør in about ten days. [...] Talk about migraines, I've been having them for 20 years! (just like my mother). Not much to do - except rest my brain and avoid noisy gatherings, crowds etc., nervous conversations. Precisely for me, it's my infuriating tapping that gives me atrocious migraines. I can't get anywhere without migraines. So you can understand why I have to go to work like a sorted fool - but I have to. I'm going to get back to work as soon as I find Korsør, in other words, in a week or so. Oh, I'm not ready to deliver anything to the public for another year, and then only with a lot of effort! I'm not a stylist, you know - it's a thankless and unrewarding job. By the way, with Féerie, I'm afraid I'm going to have to jump through a lot of hoops, with the thousand and one oppositions and judgement fines that are crushing me... We'll see, but I'm certainly not going to give anything away without a very large advance. My literary vanity is absolutely nil - to see my name in a cancan is torture - so cash or trash!"... Medical advice follows...