The controversial French novelist Louis Ferdinand Destouches (1894-1961), who used the pen name Louis Ferdinand Céline, produced works marked by a black pessimism about humanity, violent diatribes, and an increasingly hysterical desperation.

Louis Ferdinand Céline was born on May 27, 1894, just outside Paris, where he spent his childhood in humble circumstances. He left school in 1905 but continued to study by himself for the baccalauréat (university entrance) examination while working as apprentice and office boy. In 1912 he enlisted for military service and was badly wounded and decorated during World War I. Discharged because of his injuries, Céline undertook medical studies and qualified as a doctor in 1924. Extensive travels in Europe, Africa, and North America followed until he set up his practice in a poor district of Paris in 1928.

Célinés first novel, Voyage au bout de la nuit (Journey...