Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
A manuscript of The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, will go on sale for more than a million dollars during the annual Abu Dhabi Art fair in late November, The Guardian reported today.
One of only three of its kind, it features handwritten notes and corrections by Exupéry, and features one of the beloved story's most famous lines: You can only see well with your heart. What is essential is invisible to the eyes.
It is also the first time that a manuscript of this classic has been offered for public sale, the source said.
Other reviews specify that the copy that will be exhibited in Abu Dhabi belongs to the London bookstore Peter Harrington, specializing in extremely rare high-value copies.
According to The Guardian, one of the other carbon copies of the manuscript is at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas, while the other is at the French National Library in Paris.
The version for sale appears to be the only one the author kept as a working copy.
The volume accompanies two original pencil sketches of the prince, including a preliminary design for the book's final illustration.
The Little Prince was published in the United States in 1943 in French and English – with the title The Little Prince – and in France in 1946; Apart from religious texts, this is the most translated book in the world.
The story is narrated by a pilot who meets the little prince, who, as it turns out, has arrived on Earth from a distant planet, where his only friend was a rose.
Exupéry wrote it in New York during his exile from Nazi-occupied France. (Text and photo: PL)
