This is how the most famous phrase from ‘The Little Prince’, by Antoine Saint-Exupéry, was born

However, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry He never knew the immense success of his book. Before it went on sale, the author took one of the French copies with him on his trip from New York to France, where he was returning in order to continue serving the Allied army in the fight against the Nazis. But on July 31, 1944, he took off from an airfield in Corsica to fulfill a mission from which he would never return.

Before leaving, on April 13, 1943, Saint-Exupéry visited what had been his lover, journalist Sylvia Hamiltonwith the uniform that he ordered from the Brookes Uniform Company with the indication that they make him one of the French air force as close to the original as possible. He wanted to say goodbye to her. “I would like to give you something splendid, but this is all I have,” he told her as he delivered the texts and watercolors of ‘The Little Prince’ in a crumpled paper bag.

That original manuscript is preserved in the Morgan Library in New York. But his work was already in production at that time (it would go on sale on April 6). It is known that Saint-Exupéry left three typewritten originals. All three were produced simultaneously: they are carbon copies, identical except for the handwritten annotations, different in each one. Two copies are kept, respectively, in the National Library of France and in the Harry Ransom Center in Texas and only one is in private hands.

London bookstore Peter Harrington, specializing in rare books, acquired it at the beginning of the year for an undisclosed sum and will be auctioned from November 20 to 24 in the United Arab Emirates, together with the Saint-Exupery passport issued by the French Ministry of Culture, for an estimated starting price of 1.25 million dollars.

“Unlike the other two, which were given to other people, he kept this one and it was your own working copy of typewritten text, that’s why it’s so special,” explained Peter Harrington’s Sammy Jay, according to AFP. In the copy, which contains the receipt for the uniform ordered by the French author, one of the most famous phrases of the book appears for the first time: «Only with the heart can one see well; “what is essential is invisible to the eyes.”

Five years of work

Saint-Exupéry drew extensively on his own experience to write ‘The Little Prince’. Before leaving to explore the universe, the Prince lived on a small asteroid known as B 612, where he took care of a petulant and demanding rose. The Thorny Flower was based on his wife, Consuelo. Their marriage had many ups and downs. and, like Saint-Exupéry, the Prince abandons his rose to long for it when they are apart. As he explores the universe, he finds nothing but human folly. The wisest creature what he finds is a foxinspired by Saint-Exupéry’s lover and friend, Silvia Hamilton.

The fox tells the Prince a secretwhich is the most famous quote from the work: «On ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux” (“Only with the heart can one see well; what is essential is invisible to the eyes”).

The bookstore and cataloger of Peter Harrington Anna Middleton Note that this was a line that Saint-Exupéry had been struggling to achieve for five years. The three typewritten copies of ‘The Little Prince’ have the same printed text: “Ce qui est le most important c’est ce qui ne se voit pas” (“The most important thing is what is not seen”). In the French National Library copy, Saint-Exupéry has simplified the phrase to “L’essential est toujours invisible” (“The essential is always invisible”). «In our copy, Saint-Exupéry has hand corrected the typewritten text until final and immortal form: ‘On ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux,’” he explains.

In addition to the handwritten corrections, the version to be sold includes some passages that were later deleted and numerous drawings by the author.