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Arenberg Auctions

737 - [CÉLINE, Louis-Ferdinand] “Proposal for the Curriculum of the École des Hautes Études”: autograph manuscript and typewritten copy. No place [1932] Manuscript: 38 (of 43) folios, unnumbered, black ink on tinted vellum paper, numerous underlinings, cross-outs, corrections, notes on a few reverse sides, all in the same hand (pp. 8–12 missing, a few folds, rare minor foxing very marginal). - Typed copy: 45 ff., blue ink on tinted vellum paper (trace of a paper clip, a few small foxing spots; f. 37 slightly creased with a small tear at the margin, no loss). In a folder from an autograph dealer and a brown paper mailing envelope. An important working manuscript of a medical and social text by Louis-Ferdinand Destouches, alias Céline, which remained unpublished until 1977.In the absence of other information, it is dated by the sentence “Here is the state of medicine, public health, and social insurance in 1932” (f. 39 of the copy). Written in the same year that *Journey to the End of the Night* was published, this manuscript proposes a program for the creation of an advanced course in public health in Paris. In it, Céline, speaking as a physician, addresses issues that had been on his mind for several years: the organization of medicine, public health, social insurance, occupational medicine, and medical education. He advocates for an educational program that goes beyond clinical practice alone, is open to economic and social realities, and is grounded in the concrete observation of living conditions. The manuscript, which has been extensively revised, presents an unfinished version of the text, with numerous cross-outs, substitutions, additions, and marginal notes; a few pages list ideas to be developed. It is accompanied by a complete typescript, which itself constitutes a more polished version of the text. Unpublished during Céline’s lifetime, the “Mémoire pour le cours des Hautes Études” was not revealed until forty-five years later with its publication in the third volume of the “Cahiers Céline”: “Semmelweis and Other Medical Writings,” texts compiled and introduced by Jean-Pierre Dauphin and Henri Godard (Paris: Gallimard, 1977). The editors emphasized the particular significance of this work, written at the same time as *Voyage*, in which certain social realities present in the novel are examined here through the language and perspective of a physician. This manuscript is therefore particularly significant in Céline’s career, marking the transition from Destouches’ medical practice to the writer’s emergence in the public eye. The tone frequently goes beyond a simple technical exposition, and the physician often gives way to the pamphleteer. Beneath the educational project lie criticism of institutions and distrust of administrative abstractions—all elements that lend this medical text its own significance in the genesis of Céline’s thought. Ref. Dauphin & Fouché, Bibliography of the Writings of L.-F. Céline, 69D6 & 77B1. Provenance: G. Morssen, autograph dealer, 14 rue de Seine, Paris (folder, [c. 1987]).

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Estimation

€5,000 - 6,000

Sale fees

30%

[CÉLINE, Louis-Ferdinand] “Proposal for the Curriculum of the École des Hautes Études”: autograph manuscript and typewritten copy. No place [1932] Manuscript: 38 (of 43) folios, unnumbered, black ink on tinted vellum paper, numerous underlinings, cross-outs, corrections, notes on a few reverse sides, all in the same hand (pp. 8–12 missing, a few folds, rare minor foxing very marginal). - Typed copy: 45 ff., blue ink on tinted vellum paper (trace of a paper clip, a few small foxing spots; f. 37 slightly creased with a small tear at the margin, no loss). In a folder from an autograph dealer and a brown paper mailing envelope. An important working manuscript of a medical and social text by Louis-Ferdinand Destouches, alias Céline, which remained unpublished until 1977.In the absence of other information, it is dated by the sentence “Here is the state of medicine, public health, and social insurance in 1932” (f. 39 of the copy). Written in the same year that *Journey to the End of the Night* was published, this manuscript proposes a program for the creation of an advanced course in public health in Paris. In it, Céline, speaking as a physician, addresses issues that had been on his mind for several years: the organization of medicine, public health, social insurance, occupational medicine, and medical education. He advocates for an educational program that goes beyond clinical practice alone, is open to economic and social realities, and is grounded in the concrete observation of living conditions. The manuscript, which has been extensively revised, presents an unfinished version of the text, with numerous cross-outs, substitutions, additions, and marginal notes; a few pages list ideas to be developed. It is accompanied by a complete typescript, which itself constitutes a more polished version of the text. Unpublished during Céline’s lifetime, the “Mémoire pour le cours des Hautes Études” was not revealed until forty-five years later with its publication in the third volume of the “Cahiers Céline”: “Semmelweis and Other Medical Writings,” texts compiled and introduced by Jean-Pierre Dauphin and Henri Godard (Paris: Gallimard, 1977). The editors emphasized the particular significance of this work, written at the same time as *Voyage*, in which certain social realities present in the novel are examined here through the language and perspective of a physician. This manuscript is therefore particularly significant in Céline’s career, marking the transition from Destouches’ medical practice to the writer’s emergence in the public eye. The tone frequently goes beyond a simple technical exposition, and the physician often gives way to the pamphleteer. Beneath the educational project lie criticism of institutions and distrust of administrative abstractions—all elements that lend this medical text its own significance in the genesis of Céline’s thought. Ref. Dauphin & Fouché, Bibliography of the Writings of L.-F. Céline, 69D6 & 77B1. Provenance: G. Morssen, autograph dealer, 14 rue de Seine, Paris (folder, [c. 1987]).

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Auction details

Old and rare books, literature, autographs, archives
Thursday, December 3
01:00 PM
19/2 Rue aux Laines
1000 Bruxelles, Belgium

Auction house

Arenberg Auctions +3225441055 info@arenbergauctions.com
On Drouot for more than 10 years avec More than 49,000 lots published

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