Le Petit Prince. Avec dessins de l'auteur. (The Little Prince). True first edition. Limited to only 260 copies signed by Saint-Exupery. by Antoine de Saint-Exupery - 1943

New York: Reynal & Hitchcock. Fine in Very Good dust jacket. 1943. First Edition; First. Cloth. The rarest (and the only true first) edition of the Prince. Number 119 of a scant war-time limited edition of only 260 copies printed in America from the author's original French manuscript. The book was published simultaneously in an edition translated into English by Katherine Woods & limited to 525 copies but it's uncontroversial that the book was written in French and that the English translation was dictated by the publisher and certainly unread by the author who proudly didn't speak or comprehend English (the signature sheets were signed separately & then inserted into the finished books). One might (though Saint-Exupery certainly wouldn't) excuse Woods' bowdlerized translation of the original manuscript (e.g., rendering of "tippler" for what should have been translated as "drunkard," and substitution of "charming" for "ravishing"), but not the translation of the author's "ami" into "sheep:" "Il était une fois un petit prince qui ___ avait besoin d'un ami" ("Once upon a time there was a little prince who ___had need of a friend") into "Once upon a time there was a little prince who ___had need of a sheep." Consider as well the less egregious description of baobab trees as "large as castles" whereas the original French is (& is purposefully intended to be) "grands comme des églises." Chip to head of darkened spine jacket (see image). Other than archival prophylactic strengthening of jacket head, no ownership marks, no paper burns, no inserts, no labels, no sophistications, no repairs, no additions, no alterations. Publisher's faded "119" limitation penned to jacket spine. Description copyright 2017 by William Chrisant.; Octavo; 93 pages; Signed by Author .