The Little Prince
by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Reynal & Hitchcock © 1943
First Edition, First Printing
THIS IS AN ACTUAL FIRST EDITION FIRST PRINTING
The beloved Little Prince as he was first known, an absolute rarity, in its original dust jacket.
The Little Prince (French: Le Petit Prince) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 and was published posthumously in France following liberation; Saint-Exupéry’s works had been banned by the Vichy Regime. The story follows a young prince who visits various planets in space, including Earth, and addresses themes of loneliness, friendship, love, and loss. Despite its style as a children’s book, The Little Prince makes observations about life, adults and human nature.
The story of The Little Prince is recalled in a sombre, measured tone by the pilot narrator, in memory of his small friend, “a memorial to the prince—not just to the prince, but also to the time the prince and the narrator had together.” The Little Prince was created when Saint-Exupéry was “an ex patriate and distraught about what was going on in his country and in the world.” According to one analysis, “the story of the Little Prince features a lot of fantastical, unrealistic elements.... You can’t ride a flock of birds to another planet... The fantasy of the Little Prince works because the logic of the story is based on the imagination of children, rather than the strict realism of adults.”
Seller’s Note: This is a 1st/1st Reynal & Hitchcock edition, which means it was printed in 1943. Editions printed during and after 1948 were published by Harcourt Brace. Only three of Saint-Exupéry’s previous works are listed on the copyright page (four books in later editions), the 5 line colophon is present on last page. Dust jacket has the original $2.00 price and its 386 Fourth Avenue address (a must). Some aging and browning is visible on jacket, small tears and chips to outer edges, with a small 1 inch section missing directly over lower spine. Pages are unmarked and bound tight. Salmon boards, per its first printing.