May 27, 1894

So what is the fascination many literary greats have with Celine, a French collaborator, and anti-semite? Louis-Ferdinand Celine (May 27, 1894 to July 1, 1961), was the pen name of a physician and writer. Here is Philip Roth: “Céline is my Proust!...Even if his anti-Semitism made him an abject, intolerable person. To read him, I have to suspend my Jewish conscience, but I do it, because anti-Semitism isn’t at the heart of his books… Céline is a great liberator.”

The fact is the author of Journey to the End of Night, published first in 1932, had an extraordinary self-knowledge, and along with his determination to fulfill certain personal ambitions, a genius for conveying a certain masculine energy-- a basic vital and honest, focus.

According to New Yorker author, Adelaide Docx, "While using language to persuasively undermine itself,... Céline’s deepest comedy...[involves] the energy of the writing versus the sense of utter futility he conveys."

Celine had a cat named Bebert of whom he was quite fond.