Hindus, Milton

Louis-Ferdinand Destouches, the man whom the literary world would come to know by his pseudonym, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, was born May 27, 1894, in Courbevoie, France. An only child, Céline was raised by his mother, Marguerite-Louise-Céline Guilloux, and his father, Ferdinand-Auguste Destouches. He attended local schools in the Paris suburb of Passage Choiseul, before being sent to study in England and Germany. In 1912, Céline joined the French cavalry, serving as a sergeant until he was wounded in World War I. After his injury, Céline received a medal of honor and was sent to London to work in the passport office of the French Consulate. It was in London that Céline married his first of three wives, Suzanne Nebout. The marriage lasted roughly one year, ending in 1916 when Céline was discharged from the military and left London to work for a trading company in West Africa.

Returning to France in 1917, Céline began his medical studies at the University of Rennes in 1919; in the same year, he married his second wife, Edith Follet. The marriage ended in 1925 when Céline abandoned his wife and their daughter, Collette. For the next three years, Céline traveled across the globe as a doctor for the League of Nations. In 1928, he returned to France and set up a private practice as a doctor for the poor in Clichy. It was at this time that he began writing, hoping to augment the meager income of his medical work.

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