"Il paraît qu'il est question de me poursuivre à nouveau d'après Les Beaux Draps... "

Partly unpublished autograph letter signed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline addressed to his "dear Master and defender" Maître Thorvald Mikkelsen. Two pages written in blue ink on two large sheets of white paper; numbers "580" and "581" in Céline's hand in the upper left corner in red pencil.
Transverse folds inherent to the mailing.
This letter was very partially transcribed in the Année Céline 2005.
Autograph letter signed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline addressed to his "dear Master and defender" Maître Thorvald Mikkelsen. Two pages written in blue ink on two large sheets of white paper; numbers "580" and "581" in Céline's hand in the upper left corner in red pencil.
Transverse folds inherent to the mailing.
Céline sends Mikkelsen an article: "Pour intéressé que vous soyez aux choses de l'esprit je crois avoir remarqué que les turlupinades des banques, changes, fricoteries diverses vous amusaient aussi. Ci-donc, joint, article assez farceur relatant certaines galipettes de l'or et ses escrocs changeurs (à Paris, évidemment !)" ["However interested you may be in matters of the mind, I believe I have noticed that the buffooneries of banks, exchanges, and various swindles also amuse you. Here, therefore, attached, is a rather farcical article relating certain antics of gold and its swindling money-changers (in Paris, obviously!)"] The writer attached to his letter another sheet whose numerous underlinings bear witness to the persecution he felt victim to: "Maintenant qu'on remonte la Ligne Maginot, qu'on recrée une Légion Anti Bolchéviques, une armée franco-allemande, il paraît qu'il est question de me poursuivre à nouveau d'après les Beaux Draps mais cette fois pour antigermanisme et sabotage de l'Europe Nouvelle et irrespect pour Hitler ! Oh je n'en mène pas large !" ["Now that they're rebuilding the Maginot Line, recreating an Anti-Bolshevik Legion, a Franco-German army, it seems they're planning to prosecute me again based on Les Beaux Draps but this time for anti-Germanism and sabotage of the New Europe and disrespect for Hitler! Oh, I'm not feeling very confident!"]
In 1947, Céline, pursued by French justice for his collaborationist involvement, was confined in Denmark. It was in May 1948, accompanied by Lucette and Bébert, that he arrived at his lawyer Maître Thorvald Mikkelsen's home in Klarskovgaard. The latter owned a large property by the Baltic Sea and invited the exile to stay there. On February 21, 1950, as part of the purge, the writer was definitively condemned in absentia by the civic chamber of the Paris Court of Justice for collaboration to one year of imprisonment (which he had already served in Denmark). The Swedish Consul General in Paris, Raoul Nordling, intervened on his behalf with Gustav Rasmussen, the Danish Foreign Minister, and managed to delay his extradition. On April 20, 1951, Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, his lawyer since 1948, obtained Céline's amnesty as a "severely disabled veteran of the Great War" by presenting his file under the name of Louis-Ferdinand Destouches without any magistrate making the connection. Céline would leave Denmark the following summer, after three years spent at his lawyer's home.
In 1947, Céline, pursued by French justice for his collaborationist involvement, was confined in Denmark. It was in May 1948, accompanied by Lucette and Bébert, that he arrived at his lawyer Maître Thorvald Mikkelsen's home in Klarskovgaard. The latter owned a large property by the Baltic Sea and invited the exile to stay there. On February 21, 1950, as part of the purge, the writer was definitively condemned in absentia by the civic chamber of the Paris Court of Justice for collaboration to one year of imprisonment (which he had already served in Denmark). The Swedish Consul General in Paris, Raoul Nordling, intervened on his behalf with Gustav Rasmussen, the Danish Foreign Minister, and managed to delay his extradition. On April 20, 1951, Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, his lawyer since 1948, obtained Céline's amnesty as a "severely disabled veteran of the Great War" by presenting his file under the name of Louis-Ferdinand Destouches without any magistrate making the connection. Céline would leave Denmark the following summer, after three years spent at his lawyer's home.