Exhibition. Meet the Little Prince

Up until June 26, 2022, an exhibition dedicated to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is being held in Paris with -and this is a first in France- the original script of the aviator’s masterpiece: “The Little Prince”.

Seventy-nine years after its publication in the United States (“The Little Prince” was not released until 1946 in France, three years later), Saint-Exupéry’s mythical work remains a literary staple! With more than 200 million copies sold globally, the most translated work in the world after the Bible (available in over 250 languages and dialects) is still sold today at five million units per year!

From the end of February and until the beginning of the summer, the life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and the story of this aviator who lands in the desert, where he meets a boy and has a long discussion about human beings, are being exhibited in the capital. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs [Museum of Decorative Arts] has the honor of hosting the event.

In all, some 600 items (photographs, poems, newspaper clippings, correspondence, watercolors, sketches, drawings, and more) are being presented to the public. There is no doubt about it, people will be flocking to this exhibition to admire the main item: the original manuscript of the “Little Prince”, presented for the first time in France. Until now, the text had been kept at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York.

Through the items on display to visitors of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, we can better understand the origins of the book (the character of the “Little Prince” already appears in drawings dating back to the 1930s) and the conditions under which it was written – with marks from coffee cups and cigarette butts to prove it all!

In short, this is an exceptional exhibition about the aviator who disappeared in 1944 off the coast of Marseille, and whose great-great-nephew, Thomas Rivière, recently said: “This is the only occasion in our lifetime that we will see so many of Saint-Exupéry’s works together in one place”. Enough said!

Exhibition. Meet the Little Prince. Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 107 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris. February 17 to June 26, 2022