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The only typescript of Le Petit Prince to appear on the market, one of only three located copies, with authorial manuscript edits to almost every page, including what may be the first appearance of the work's most famous quote, handwritten by Saint-Exupéry on page 57: "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; the essential is invisible to the eye"). Le Petit Prince is Saint-Exupéry's masterpiece. It is, aside from religious texts, the most translated book in the world, and one of our most universal and timeless fables. Any autograph material by Saint-Exupéry is rare - much is housed at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, including a typescript of Pilote de Guerre (1942) - but Le Petit Prince stands entirely apart from Saint-Exupéry's other writings as his most globally acclaimed work. Saint-Exupéry wrote Le Petit Prince in New York while in exile from occupied France during the Second World War. He composed the story at the suggestion of Elizabeth Reynal, the wife of his American publisher. She hoped a children's story would be therapeutic for the troubled author, who refused to learn English and was agonized by America's refusal to enter the war. He completed Le Petit Prince in October 1942, writing much of it at the Park Avenue apartment of his lover, Silvia Reinhardt. In February 1943 he learned that he would be mobilized once more as a reconnaissance pilot. On 26 February he ordered an "approximation of a French air force uniform" (Shiff) from Brooks Uniform Company. A poignant piece of ephemera - the cashed check for this uniform - accompanies our typescript. Before he left on 13 April, he went to Reinhardt's apartment, dressed in his uniform. "I wish I had something splendid for you to remember me by, but this is all I have", he said, handing her his camera and placing a paper bag on her entryway table (Shiff). The paper bag contained the original hand-written manuscript of Le Petit Prince, now housed at the Morgan Library in New York. We can trace only two other typescripts of Le Petit Prince. One copy, housed at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, was given by Saint-Exupéry to his friend, the pianist Nadia Boulanger. The other, housed at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas, was given by Saint-Exupéry to his translator, Lewis Galantière. All three are carbon copies made simultaneously by Saint-Exupéry, but only our copy and Boulanger's have authorial corrections. The manuscript corrections that Saint-Exupéry made to our copy and to Boulanger's differ slightly. There are notable changes to our copy which are not duplicated on Boulanger's. For example, the original manuscript is replete with references to New York. It has been widely remarked that American aspects are completely cut from the published book, but Boulanger's copy retains some references to New York, including one to "Manhattan... couvert de buildings de cinquante étages" ("Manhattan... covered in fifty-story buildings", p. 47). In our copy, we can see Saint-Exupéry striking through this passage and rephrasing it with a more universal slant, replacing Manhattan with "le moindre petit îlot du Pacifique" ("the smallest islet in the Pacific", p. 47). Perhaps the most significant change is to one of the most famous quotes from Le Petit Prince. On page 57, the fox says to the Little Prince, "Voici mon secret. Il est très simple" ("Here is my secret. It is very simple"). The text of the carbon typescript continues with "Ce qui est le plus important c'est ce qui ne se voit pas" ("What is most important is what is not seen"). In Boulanger's copy, Saint-Exupéry has changed this by hand to simply "L'essentiel est toujours invisible" ("The essential is always invisible"). In our copy, Saint-Exupéry changes the text by hand to its final form, as it appears in the first edition: "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; the essential is invisible to the eye"). In her biography of the author, Stacy Shiff remarks that this was "a line that caused SE a great deal of trouble, although he had been turning out versions of it for five years"; this annotation may represent the final resolution of five years of toil. Saint-Exupéry never returned from the war. He wrote to his publisher from Oujda, Morocco, on 8 June 1942: "Je ne sais rien du Petit Prince (je ne sais même pas s'il a paru!) - Je ne sais rien sur rien: écrivez-moi" ("I don't know anything about the Little Prince (I don't even know if it was published!) - I don't know anything about anything: write to me"). His publisher replied with a reassurance that Le Petit Prince had appeared to good reviews. On 31 July 1944 Saint-Exupéry took off on a reconnaissance mission and did not return. It was not until September 1998 that a fisherman found Saint-Exupéry's silver identity bracelet, hooked to a piece of fabric, presumably from his uniform. On the inside of the covers of our typescript Saint-Exupéry has made a substantial number of quotidian notes, working out brief mathematics (likely financial) and sketching floorplans. He has also sketched several unidentified profiles (including one which appears to be titled "Maître Tanger") and a brief character who does not obviously appear in Le Petit Prince: it may be a trial for the Vain Man, or perhaps a caricature of someone known to Saint-Exupéry. Accompanying the typescript are two loose original pencil sketches of the Little Prince. One shows the Little Prince holding a stick, perhaps a draft for the image of him hoeing his planet to prevent baobab seeds from taking over. The other is a preliminary sketch for the book's final illustration, that of the Little Prince returning home. READ MORE Together, 4 items: carbon-copy typescript, 76 pages typed on one side only, within black card covers, pastedowns with illustrations and notes in blue, black, and brown ink, together with a banker's check and two original pencil sketches of the Little Prince, all carefully preserved in a custom red cloth chemise and morocco folding box. Contents of card covers: 3 preliminary leaves, first 2 stapled to stubs of excised sheets; 76 pages carbon copy typescript wire-stitched left, pp. 40-59 loose. Inscriptions: p. [ii] inscribed with manuscript title and annotation in pencil by different hand, "MANUSCRIT 'PETIT PRINCE'' over lighter annotation "veuves [?] promène [?] Mai 49"; p. 1 and p. 46 annotated "Texte 3" at head in manuscript by Saint-Exupéry. With hand-written annotations by Saint-Exupéry in ink and pencil throughout. Numbering: first 59 pages numbered consecutively, followed by 8 pp. numbered 1-7 including half-page stapled and subsequently struck-through also numbered 7, pp. 65-73 numbered consecutively. Condition: covers creased and worn, cigarette burns to front wrapper (recto and verso), pp. [i-ii] nicked with short closed tears, stain to p. [i], rust marks from staples to a few pages, short closed tear to inner margin of first 7 pages of typescript, not affecting text, edges of the inserted pages following p. 59 a little creased, p. 7(a) with shallow chip to outer edge and a few nicks, punctures where p. 7(b) previously stapled, verso of final leaf toned: typescript itself well-preserved. With: Banker's check (70 x 160 mm), printed in red, signed and completed by Saint-Exupéry in black ink to "Brooks Uniform Co", for $100 dollars on 26 February 1943. Endorsed with perforated inner margin, verso with ink stamps in pink and red, punched-through. Pencil sketch of the Little Prince holding a stick, on single sheet Discount Bond Rag Content USA watermarked paper (214 x 279 mm), a few spots of foxing else remarkably well-preserved. Preliminary pencil draft of the final image of the Little Prince returning home, single sheet Macadam Bond Rag Content watermarked paper (279 x 216 mm), numbered in ink "160" upper right, outer margin hole-punched. Michel Autrand & Michel Quesnel, eds, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Œuvres Completes, Vol. II, 1999; Alban Cerisier, ed., Il était une fois, Le Petit Prince, 2006; Stacy Shiff, Saint-Exupéry, 1994; Alain Vircondelet & José Martinez Fructuoso, Antoine et Consuel

The Little Prince, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is a poignant tale of love and loss, centered around a young prince who travels from planet to planet, exploring themes of loneliness, friendship, and the essence of life. It remains a timeless classic cherished by readers of all ages.