Canada / 05-09-2012
Will Celine's antisemitic booklets be republished?
Quebec – A shocking plan has been uncovered in Canada. The small Quebec publishing house HUIT is planning to republish three antisemitic booklets authored by Céline.
The book, which will be titled Controversial Periodicals (Ecrits polémiques), will be a critical and annotated edition by Régis Tettamanzi, a professor of French literature at the University of Nantes. This initiative is surprising and appalling, especially since Trifles for a Massacre (1937), School for Corpses (1938), and A Nice Mess (1941) have been out of print since the end of the World War II. Lucette Destouches, the author's 100-year old widow, is unaware of the Canadian publishing house's plan, and has objected in the past to republishing these booklets in France.
Francois Gibault, who is both Céline's biographer and the family's legal representative, was also unaware of HUIT's decision to republish the booklets. In 2011, Francois Gibault explained, “Like Mrs. Céline, I am opposed to the republication of these satirical booklets. It may even be considered a provocation, because these books were written under very specific historic circumstances […].”
