Louis-Ferdinand Céline was the pen name of Louis-Ferdinand Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961). He was a French writer and physician. The name Céline was the first name of his grandmother. He is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, developing a new style of writing that modernized both French and world literature.
The only child of Ferdinand-Auguste Destouches and Marguerite-Louise-Céline Guilloux, he was bo...
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Louis-Ferdinand Céline was the pen name of Louis-Ferdinand Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961). He was a French writer and physician. The name Céline was the first name of his grandmother. He is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, developing a new style of writing that modernized both French and world literature.
The only child of Ferdinand-Auguste Destouches and Marguerite-Louise-Céline Guilloux, he was born Louis-Ferdinand-Auguste Destouches in 1894 at Courbevoie, just outside Paris in the Seine département (now Hauts-de-Seine). His father was a minor functionary in an insurance firm and his mother was a lacemaker. In 1905 he was awarded his Certificat d'études, after which he worked as an apprentice and messenger boy in various trades. Between 1908 and 1910 his parents sent him to Germany and England for a year in each country in order to acquire foreign languages for future employment. From the time he left school, until the age of eighteen,...
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