BFF-27 Widow of French novelist Celine dies aged 107

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FRANCE-LITERATURE-PEOPLE,OBIT

Widow of French novelist Celine dies aged 107

PARIS, Nov 8, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The widow of the highly regarded but hugely
controversial French novelist Louis-Ferdinand Celine has died aged 107, over
half a century after her husband, whose work she always defended, a family
friend told AFP on Friday.

Lucette Destouches died overnight peacefully in her sleep, said David
Alliot, a specialist on Celine and author of the biography “Madame Celine,”
who was close to Destouches.

Celine is revered by many in France and beyond for an innovative style
which incorporated street language into literature, notably in his most
famous work, “Journey to the End of the Night” in 1932.

But his reputation was sullied by his collaboration with the Nazis during
the occupation of France in World War II, during which he wrote virulently
anti-Semitic pamphlets.

Celine and Destouches fled France after the D-Day landings in Normandy in
1944 and he was later convicted in absence of collaborating with the Nazis.
The couple returned to France in 1951.

He died in 1961 but Destouches never tired of seeking to revive his
reputation in hope that posterity would be kinder to him.

French publisher Gallimard sparked controversy last year by announcing
plans to reissue a collection of the violently anti-Semitic pamphlets but
then shelved the idea in the face of public outrage.

Celine himself had said he did not want the pamphlets to be reissued, but a
lawyer for Destouches gave consent for a reprint after she gave her
permission after years of opposition.

A former dancer, Destouches refused to have her picture taken from the late
1960s onwards. “It is Celine who matters, me I am nothing!” she once said.

In August 2018, Destouches sold their home in Meudon, southwest of Paris,
reportedly to pay her debts. She and Celine had moved there in 1951.

Born Lucie Almansor, she met Celine, whose real name was Louis Ferdinand
Auguste Destouches and 20 years her senior, at a dance studio in 1936. They
married in 1943.

BSS/AFP/SSS/1918 hrs