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27 CÉLINE, Louis-Ferdinand. Voyage au bout de la nuit. Roman. Paris: Editions Denoël et Steele, 1932 The author’s debut, inscribed to one of his earliest and most ardent defenders First trade edition, first printing, inscribed by the author on the half-title, “A mon Marcel Espiau, hommage de l’Auteur, Louis Céline”, together with an autograph letter signed by the author, inviting Espiau to dinner to celebrate “the benevolence and the good taste of his jury” [our translation]. Espiau was instrumental in awarding the Prix Renaudot to Céline for this, his debut. Voyage au bout de la nuit was published in October 1932 to immediate and widespread critical acclaim. It was quickly touted as the favourite for the Prix Goncourt, and Céline was assured of his victory. In 1926, a group of critics, Espiau among them, had
created the Prix Renaudot while waiting for the nomination of the Goncourt. Though not officially related, the juries of both prizes announce the winners at the same time and place, on the first Tuesday of November, at the Drouant restaurant in Paris. The Renaudot is often considered a consolation prize, with the jurors ensuring that they have an alternative laureate in case their first choice receives the more prestigious Goncourt. Voyage did not win the Goncourt that year. In a scandal that fuelled Céline’s notoriety, the Goncourt was awarded instead to Guy Mazeline’s Les Loups . Céline’s subsequent fame resulted in 50,000 copies of Voyage selling in the following two months. Despite the consensus that the Goncourt decision was a travesty, Espiau still had to fight bitterly to have Voyage awarded the Renaudot: it took three rounds of voting for Céline to emerge victorious, with a small majority of six votes out of ten. Céline left France almost immediately for a “little medico- sentimental tour of Europe” (quoted in Gibault). He was mortified
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