Rare typescript of The Little Prince to go up for sale
One of only three of its kind, it features handwritten notes and corrections by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and the first appearance of one of the beloved story’s most famous lines
A rare carbon typescript of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince featuring extensive handwritten corrections by the author is going up for sale. It is one of only three known copies and marks the first time a typescript of the classic story has been offered for public sale.
The artefact 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,” translated to mean: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
In previous drafts, Saint-Exupéry had been “toying with and turning this phrase back and forward in his head,” explains Sammy Jay, senior literature specialist at London-based book dealer Peter Harrington. In the typescript, “you can actually witness the author making that breakthrough and writing that full sentence for the first time.”
