Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE. Autograph manuscript signed "LF Céline", [Acte de foi, February 1941]; 19feuillets in-4. Working manuscript of this open letter to Alphonse de Châteaubriant, which appeared as an article in the collaborationist weekly La Gerbe. In January 1941, Céline had received a visit from Eitel Friedrich Moellhausen, a German diplomat, who asked him to write an article for La Gerbe; Céline initially refused, then agreed to write an open letter to Alphonse de Châteaubriant (1877-1951), a fervent pre-war advocate of Franco-German rapprochement, then of collaboration, and founder and editor of La Gerbe, from which he would soon be dismissed by Moellhausen. However, Céline's letter was published as an article, with the title "Acte de foi" (admittedly taken from the text), and a few modifications (including the toning down of coarse language, and the deletion of certain proper names), which provoked Céline's anger, and he sent Moellhausen back his check, along with an insulting letter. Always anti-Semitic, Céline is highly critical of the National Revolution and the acrobats of the Collaboration. The manuscript of this open letter is extensively crossed out and corrected. It is paginated from 1 to 13, but with 5 extra pages added (1, 2, 3, 7, 11). Important passages have been crossed out, and 8 leaves bear a crossed-out first draft on the back. The text is well drafted as a letter, with an address to the addressee at the head and end. "My dear Chateaubriant, / Articles are not my forte. Nor is politics, for that matter. It requires a skill I do not possess"... Céline recalls a little girl who had dreams "after" events that had already occurred: she "never had the wrong dreams. What's funny in a seven-year-old girl is even funnier in a forty-year-old author, only in a different way. I'm referring to all these books, all these articles, pleas, movements, testimonials and their authors, which have been appearing, agitating, in our sub-damned zones, since June. The work of the 'dreamers-after'." And Céline mocks the book Après la défaite [by Bertrand de Jouvenel]: "The works of the 'songeurs après' are all strictly reversible. They have this common character, and then they never speak of the Jews. They reserve the future. [...] A hundred thousand shouts of "Vive Pétain" are not worth a little ["mort aux juifs" crossed out twice] "vive les youtres!" in practice. A little courage for God's sake! [...] Rapetisser, watering down cyclones to the measure of the French "menu-jean-foutre", that's the sneaky goal. You see, dear Chateaubriant, that we are really far from the mark. [...] There's a bit of everything in your newspapers! and re-de-tout, so to speak! Crypto, para, microni youtres! You never know who's going to write on your back! [...] And what's a new party? supernational, poustouflant? Slippers? [...] Is this your Revolution? Let's bite it! To the fools! [...] Who touches himself, doesn't finish himself, gets worked up in insipid games, soon gets under himself... Here we are. / Ah! when I see those big Soviets how quickly they "got closer" to the nice Lithuania. Oh, how quickly it all came together! Ah! I'm still in a daze, pensive, delighted, aghast. [...] It is a decree of nature that ants will always, always, eat the larvae / Charles Dieudonné, a Swiss of perfect complexion, gives M. Guitry high patents for francism. He warns us to beat our breasts! [...] I'd like M. Guitry to tell us everything he thinks about the Jewish question! and we'd be happy! jubilant!"... And Céline concludes: "Let's compromise! In complete freedom of course, spontaneously, against the wall. Without any pressure. Then we'll finally know who we're talking to! Baptism is not everything! Act of faith, clear and in writing / Are the Jews responsible for the war or not? Give us an answer in black and white, you acrobatic writers. Don't touch each other! Qui vive? Qui vive? / Bien amicalement cher ami, et tout désolé, vraiment sur cette terre où rien ne pousse, décidément [, not even un petit oui bien ferme biffé]. / LF Céline". A copy of the issue of La Gerbe in which the article appeared is enclosed. Lettres (Pléiade), 41-6 (text of article).