Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE. 5 L.A.S. "LFC" (one signed "LF Céline", one unsigned), [Copenhagen August-December 1948], to his friend the publisher Jean-Gabriel Daragnès; 3, 9, 9, 2 and 4pages in-fol. Long letters against Mme Voilier and Denoël. August 5. "I think you must be having a hard time bailing out my rotten ship! Rotten publishers too! All of them! No more news from Arquian!... thinking too no doubt, waiting for the Moon to fall into its night vase... and the ffameux Eeevénements! C'est du RàF qui fait les Eeevénements en France - Pas de bombe dans le cul pas d'EEvénements. Nobody moves, crouching on his rounds, his Situaaaation". He has, "through a Belgian admirer", news of Le Vigan [who is about to be released from prison] "not to be communicated to anyone (in the Popol ghetto, especially the devilishly viperous)"... He adds: "I'd like him to get out of the cage and spend some time with that blessed ass", Mrs. Fays Vuylstecke in Geluwe: "She's posh. It's a big brasserie, 3 kilometers from the French border. He'll get another cherry. I've never accepted anything from her. May her devout heart take charge of Le Vigan". 17th [October?] After talking about money problems ("Still poor as rats"), he recommends that any eventual publication of his works be done "in Switzerland and in Swiss money. Everything and always in Switzerland. Shit and France! [...] I've got 600,000 francs seized by the tax authorities at Denoël Voilier! [...] Don't be hypnotized by Voilier. She doesn't have a penny - she's a scoundrel, and I've told her ten times that our contract is over [...] I need to be published in Switzerland in my own name, that's all. But I don't want a 5% pass! adaptation rights etc... I'm not exactly a virgin. [...] Taittinger's book is very good. It would be good to raise this racket. The arrival of the Russian tanks will raise an even more violent one! Let all this doglit be agitated! jiggle! the beautiful merry-go-rounds!"... Then he talks about his trial: "I'm going to be purged by contumax, in five seconds, one of these 4 mornings! 20 years no doubt and seizure etc. [...] Only I won't be strangled into silence. All my lawyers are chickenshits. I'll probably be convicted. But I have the columns of Samedi Soir and Dimanche Soir [...] You're going to see some heavy artillery. I've warned you - a fine Dreyfus affair in reverse! [...] And I'm going to tell the story of the Historiette and all its funny side stories. I know how to make you laugh, yellow, green, laugh yourself to death! When you push a man and persecute him to the limit, you've got to know that you're going to get some funny licks back! [...] Here I'm stuck - taboo. Extradition! Hats off! I've been kind, courteous, patient - despite the atrocious, howling filth I've endured - but now I've had it. If these thugs, these thieves, these dogslits persist - they'll get it in the neck". And Céline rants again against Mme Voilier, and wants to be published only in Switzerland... "no more question of publishers in France except clandestine ones"... Tuesday [October or November]. A new diatribe against Mme Voilier: "This blustering bitch who arrogates to herself rights over my (and how much!) work seems monstrous to me! [...] idiotic: a liar! pretentious and a bad grocer. Incapable. Who wants me, desperate, defenseless, to exploit me again. My name to bail out her rotten grocery store! Hm??? Nobody's grocery store! Especially mine! This abracabrant, shameless, arrogant parasitism just won't do. And I don't give a damn about his lawsuits and whatnot! [...] May I have the privilege, at least of outlaws, of not having to mince my words! I'll certainly continue to address him with insulting words! And the insult of his claims, of his bluff! I'll use gloves! Carrion! I'll make his life impossible with my pen, by any means necessary. I'm a worker defending my job against a thieving, rotten bitch"... Etc. He's willing to risk Jonquières with Foudres et Scandales, "minor jobs [...] The main thing is to be paid in Swiss francs. [...] I'm an honest man. My contract with Denoël is formal. I denounced my contract according to the terms that can be read in black and white. Denoël is dead. La Voilier has sabotaged me, lured me, puked me out for five years. [...] Denoël has always deceived me. In that respect, she took over. I've never deceived anyone. Woe betide anyone who deceives me. I don't forgive"... Etc. He prepares a pamphlet entitled "Terrors, Enterers, Diggers"... October 23. "You think we squeezed, wrung out, supplicated Mimik to the last drop to make him drool gossip... the extract from the Butte! [...] He's turning montmartromane"... December 27th. He asks