A rare manuscript of The Little Prince is for sale for $1.25 million (CZK 29 million).
A bookshop in London plans to sell the work at the annual Abu Dhabi Art fair in the United Arab Emirates in November. The book by French writer Antoine Saint-Exupéry includes his drawings and handwritten corrections. Booksellers refer to it as a “literary treasure”, also because there are only two other similar editions of the famous story in the world. This was reported by the Reuters agency.
In the edition with a worn black binding, according to experts, the author first wrote the famous sentence: “We see correctly only with the heart; what is really important is invisible to the eye.” “In previous versions, he played around with that sentence and kept changing it,” literary critic and bookseller Sammy Jay of Peter Harrington Rare Books, which recently acquired the book from a private collection, told The Guardian.
The other two manuscripts are in the National Library of France and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
The Little Prince was first published during World War II in the United States in 1943, just before Saint-Exupéry left exile to join the French Air Force. The popularity of the story of a child who traveled between planets to learn the secrets of life is so great that, apart from religious texts, it is the most translated book in the world.
“This is easily the most exceptional specimen I have ever seen,” Jay added.
Saint-Exupéry, who disappeared during a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean Sea in July 1944, did not see the world success of his story.
Source: zpravy.tiscali.cz
