CÉLINE (Louis-Ferdinand). Mort à crédit. Novel. Paris: Denoël et Steele, [1936]. - In-8, 219 x 145 : 697 pp, (1 blank), printed cover. Jansenist black morocco, ribbed spine, black morocco lining and endpapers, gilt edges on witnesses, cover and spine preserved, black morocco spine and cover bands folder, lined with white calf, edged slipcase (Huser). Dauphin & Fouché, 36A1. - Boudrot, n° 183. First edition dedicated to Lucien Descaves. In this famous novel, Louis-Ferdinand Céline recounts with rage and vigour his childhood haunted by poverty. "The public discovers the author's childhood and adolescence, prey to human misery and pettiness, through the vicissitudes and hopeless destiny of Ferdinand Bardamu, the son of shopkeepers, in the Passage Choiseul, renamed "des Bérésinas", among other places, asserting that for little people life is nothing but death on credit" (Boudrot, Bibliographie des éditions Denoël et Steele, no. 183). Despite its success with the public, the novel was immediately panned by the critics. Two months later, Robert Denoël had to publish a defence of the book under the title Apologie de Mort à crédit, in which he "opposes the judgement of the elite to the good taste of readers" (Boudrot, ibidem, p. 128). At the head of the book is this warning: "At the request of the publishers, L.-F. Céline has deleted several sentences from his book; the sentences have not been replaced. They appear as blanks in the book. ONLY CERTAIN OUT OF COMMERCE PRINTS HAVE THE UNCENSORED TEXT, ONE OF WHICH IS ONE OF 22 OUT OF COMMERCE ON IMPERIAL JAPON (No. XXI), the first paper with 25 other censored copies in circulation. It was offered to the Belgian collector Charles Hayoit (1901-1984), enriched with this autograph signed letter: A monsieur // Charles Hayoit // En toute amitié // LF Céline A superb copy in a triple binding by Georges Huser (1879-1961), produced at the time for Charles Hayoit. It is complete with a folio on japon giving the typed list in red and black of the "Passages deleted in all copies". Provenance: Charles Hayoit, with consignment from the author and bookplate (V, 2005, no. 178).