Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE. L.A.S. "Destouches", [August 1914], to his parents; 4pages oblong in-4. Unpublished letter to his parents at the beginning of the war. "Dear Parents Today again nothing new. We leave for supplies in the morning around 2am. And we don't get back until very late, often into the night. The column remains saddled up in the cantonment awaiting news. I hear we're leaving for the north tomorrow, and we can hear the cannon about 15 kl from home. Morale is very good, and after the slight panic of the first few days due to the new state of affairs, people are calming down again, and morale is more or less the same as that of a troop on maneuvers. It's true that we haven't been to the front yet. We're eating as best we can at random times and in random billets. We sleep [...] up to 10 times a day, in fractions of 10 minutes to 2 hours. That's the only way, because there's no such thing as continuous rest. I haven't taken my shoes off for 9 days, and probably won't for the whole campaign. Nevertheless, it's about time we had some news ourselves, since we can't get any from the outside"...