CELINE LOUIS-FERDINAND (1894-1961)

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  4. Lot n° 344 
Lot n° 344
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Estimation :
1500 - 2000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 5 931EUR
CELINE LOUIS-FERDINAND (1894-1961)
Extremely rare autograph letter signed to his parents, without place or date [Argonne, around September 10, 1914], in pencil, on an oblong in-12 military card. Very precious and rare autograph card, partly unpublished, addressed by the marshal of logis Destouches to his parents from the front. Enrolled in October 1912 in the cuirassiers, Louis-Ferdinand Destouches was sent to the front in Flanders at the beginning of the conflict. Wounded in the arm in October 1914 during a liaison mission with the infantry, he was evacuated. Treated at the Val-de-Grâce, decorated with the military medal and then with the War Cross, he was discharged in December 1915. For Céline, the war experience was decisive, feeding the hallucinated pages of Journey to the End of the Night. The vision he offers to his parents is not to be outdone. "Dear parents, I have just received three cards and a letter from you. I have put mum's paper in my pocket, but in general the wounds are not very serious [sic] or fatal, there is hardly any alternative. We walk along this spectacle almost unconscious because of the habit of danger and especially because of the crushing fatigue we have been enduring for a month. A sort of veil is formed before consciousness. We hardly sleep 3 hours a night and walk rather like automatons driven by the instinctive will to win or die. Not again on the battlefield. Almost on the same line of fire for 3 days. The dead are continually replaced by the living to such an extent that they form mounds that are burned and that in some places we can cross the Meuse on foot over the German bodies of those who tried to pass and that our artillery engulfs without tiring. The battle leaves the impression of a vast furnace in which the living forces of two nations are engulfed, and the less stricken of the two will remain the mistress. Send a money order every eight days instead. Your registered letters arrive. And always cards, that goes fast. Your son who is embracing you. And you need a lot of courage. Dest[ouches]. [On the front:] We have not seen any reservists, they are playing war in the park at Rambouillet. Say hello to everyone for me, and although the Germans claim to be in Paris within 8 days. It is only over our bodies that they will pass, but we will rather pass over theirs. We have every confidence in Joffre." Although written on a military correspondence card, it escaped censorship: convinced of a quick victory, the general staff had probably not yet put in place the mail surveillance that was to become worse as the battle became bogged down.
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