The Gallimard publishing house ready to publish unpublished manuscripts by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Published on : 08/14/2021 – 10:13

Celine’s unpublished texts soon in bookstores? At the beginning of August, several thousand of the writer’s pages resurfaced after having disappeared for nearly 75 years. Friday, August 13, the publisher Gallimard said he was ready to be “the exclusive publisher”, against the backdrop of a legal fight between the beneficiaries and the one who secretly held the precious unpublished items.

While many thought them lost forever, some 6,000 sheets were recovered at the end of July by the beneficiaries of Louis-Ferdinand Céline, who died in 1961 and of his widow, Lucette Destouches, who died in 2019: Me François Gibault, 89 years old, penalist and writer close to “Madame Céline” and Véronique Robert-Chovin, 69, who was her dance student.

“This is an exceptional and unprecedented discovery”, explains to AFP Émile Brami, bookseller and biographer of Céline. “Céline has repeatedly said that these manuscripts had been stolen. This discovery proves that he was telling the truth”

“Lucette (Destouches) thought that texts would come out after her death,” recalls Véronique Robert-Chovin. “But we didn’t think it would come out so brutally and in such an incredible way.”

The existence of these documents was made public last week by Le Monde. They had been kept for 15 years by Jean-Pierre Thibaudat (a pen name), dramatic critic and former journalist for Liberation, who claims to have seen them given by one of his readers, whose identity he did not reveal. .

“Céline attached such importance to these manuscripts”, recalls the historical editor of the writer, Antoine Gallimard, to AFP, that “Gallimard must play the role which has always been his since 1951: the exclusive editor of his literary work. “

Unpublished texts, an alternative version of “Death on credit”

What do these documents contain? Besides a legend of medieval inspiration, “The will of King Krogold”, there are hundreds of leaves of two unpublished texts, one on World War I and the other on Celine’s London period, explain the few people to have seen the manuscripts.

Above all, they contain “the missing link” of “Casse-Pipe”, Céline’s unfinished work, says Émile Brami. “He restores the original composition of the work, between ‘Death on credit’ and ‘Voyages au bout de la nui'”, adds David Alliot, editor and Celine expert.

Also among the leaves are an unpublished letter from the collaborating poet Robert Brasillach to Céline and documents used by the writer for his anti-Semitic pamphlets.

A complete alternate version of “Death on Credit”, one of Céline’s main novels, is intended by the beneficiaries to be donated to the BNF which, in 2001, had acquired the first draft of “Voyage au bout de the night”.

The manuscripts require “a work of research and analysis to establish a critical apparatus as rigorous as possible”, recommend the two specialists.

“Publishing is also a matter of patience. The work must be carried out in a very scrupulous manner”, abounds Antoine Gallimard, who recalls the “priority given” to his publishing house “for the publication of all unpublished writings to come. “of the author by his widow.

Investigation for “concealment of theft”

“My moral and intellectual dilemma is knowing which text to publish and in what form,” François Gibault told AFP. “Whereas Céline had not done it during her lifetime, even before having them stolen”.

The documents, stolen at the Liberation of Paris when the anti-Semitic writer and his wife had gone into exile, had an uncertain course before reaching the hands of Jean-Pierre Thibaudat, who handed over all the manuscripts to the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Goods (OCBC) where he was called.

An investigation for “concealment of theft” was opened on February 17 by the Paris prosecutor after a complaint lodged by the beneficiaries, the prosecutor told AFP. The investigations were then entrusted to the OCBC.

Antoine Gallimard said for his part “very reassured” that the rights holders have recovered the manuscripts: “It is a real guarantee, as much for the conservation as for the publication and the development of the manuscripts”.

The Gallimard house stands ready “insofar as the author’s beneficiaries have informed us of their agreement”, specifies Antoine Gallimard. Me Gibault considers as for him “natural” to meet “the historical editor” of Céline first, possibly at the beginning of September.

With AFP