CÉLINE (Louis-Ferdinand Destouches, known as Louis-Ferdinand).... Lot 68

CÉLINE (Louis-Ferdinand Destouches, known as Louis-Ferdinand). Set of 8 autograph letters signed (one "L. Céline LF Destouches", 6 "LF Destouches", one "Destouches"), addressed to his lawyer Torvald Mikkelsen. Copenhagen, May 29, 1945 and following weeks. LETTERS WRITTEN BEFORE DECEMBER 1945 AND HIS ARREST BY THE DANISH AUTHORITIES AT THE REQUEST OF THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR. They concern the legal steps Céline took to regularize with the Danish authorities his presence and the existence of his financial funds in the country to which he had gone into exile at the end of the war. In particular, he recalls his status as a war invalid, presents his gold coins as a memento of his mother, and complains about the blunders of Captain Robert Laybourn: this British captain, who was teaching English to Céline's wife, Lucette Almansor, had, according to him, on his own initiative committed indiscretions concerning him with the National Bank of Denmark. INCLUDING A VERY BEAUTIFUL LETTER ON SEMMELWEIS: "Dear Master, please allow me to offer you this slim work, the only one my wife could find in town! It is little known, and the story of Semmelweis must be unfamiliar to my regular readers. It was the subject of MY MEDICAL THESIS and at the same time marked MY ENTRY INTO LITERATURE... I should have known better - IT'S A TRAGIC STORY! SHAKESPEAREAN, IBSENIAN, LACKING ONLY A LITTLE COMEDY... I made up for it!..."