Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches, better known by his pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline, was a French novelist, polemicist, and physician. He was born on 27 May 1894 and passed away on 1 July 1961. Céline is widely regarded as one of the most influential French novelists of the 20th century, known for his highly innovative writing style that incorporated working-class speech and vernacular.

His first novel, Journey to the End of the Night (1932), won the Prix Renaudot and was both celebrated and criticized for its pessimistic depiction of the human condition. He continued to develop his unique literary style in subsequent novels such as Death on the Installment Plan (1936), Guignol's Band (1944), and Castle to Castle (1957).

Despite his literary achievements, Céline remains a controversial figure due to his antisemitic writings and collaborationist activities during World War II. In 1937, he began writing antisemitic polemical works and publicly supported a military alliance with Nazi Germany. After the Allied landing in Normandy in 1944, he fled to Germany and later to Denmark, where he lived in exile.

In 1951, he was convicted of collaboration by a French court but was later pardoned by a military tribunal. Upon his return to France, he resumed his careers as a doctor and author, continuing to influence later writers.