The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is not just a famous book but a universal story about love, friendship, loss, and the nature of human relationships...
First published in 1943, this book holds records as the most translated book in the world, available in over 300 languages and sold in millions of copies worldwide. According to Artnet News, The Little Prince even surpasses sales of Tolkien’s The Hobbit and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Now, one of only three existing copies of The Little Prince's typed manuscript is offered for sale for $1.25 million. London rare book dealer Peter Harrington has put this copy up for auction, which the author wrote in New York during his exile from France under Nazi occupation in the 1940s. One copy is housed in the National Library of France, while the other is part of the Harry Ransom Center’s collection in Texas. The third copy, now up for auction, was part of a private collection in France.
The manuscript includes handwritten notes and sketches by the author, who was an experienced pilot. The story, inspired by a pilot who meets a young boy, the Little Prince, while stranded in the desert, perhaps serves as a metaphor for the exile in which the author lived during World War II. The auction will take place at the Abu Dhabi Art Festival in the United Arab Emirates in November. “To own such a manuscript is an extremely rare opportunity,” said Sammy Jay, a senior literature specialist from Peter Harrington Rare Books.
