Rare copy of ‘Le Petit Prince’ to go on sale for €1.15 million

Specialist London bookstore Peter Harrington is selling an original typescript of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic “Le Petit Prince”, complete with the author’s hand-written corrections and drawings. 

The rare book, includes some passages that were later edited out, will go on sale at the Abu Dhabi Art Festival in the United Arab Emirates next month, alongside Saint-Exupéry’s French Ministry of Culture-issued passport. They are set to go on sale for at least $1.25 million (€1.15 million).

The typed copy of the text was produced in New York by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, while in exile from Nazi-occupied France in the 1940s. It features what is believed to be the first written appearance of the famous lines: “On ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux” (“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye”). 

Sammy Jay, of Peter Harrington Rare Books, said it was one of three known versions of the transcript; one is held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (France’s National Library) and the other in the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas. 

“Unlike the other two who were given to people, he kept this one and it was his own working copy of the typescript so that’s what makes it extra special,” Jay said. 

“You don’t usually get something of this status,” he added, citing the example of the scroll typescript for Jack Kerouac’s novel “On The Road”, which sold for $2.4 million in 2001.  

“The market for rare and ancient books is very different from any other market in the sense that you don’t often sell for millions,” he said. 

“Le Petit Prince” was published in the US in 1943 in French and English, and in France in 1946. Aside from religious texts, it is the most translated book in the world. 

Saint-Exupéry disappeared during a flying mission over the Mediterranean in July 1944, and never got to witness his book’s worldwide success. 

Additional sources • AFP