The Little Prince by Saint-Exupery, Antoine de - 1943

New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943. First edition. Near Fine/Very Good +. First printing in English. Near Fine book in VG+ jacket. Book with a touch of fraying to the spine ends and faint spotting to the front board, else bright and unmarked. In the correct salmon colored boards. Jacket priced at $2.00 and with the publisher's Fourth Avenue address. Some loss to spine extremities and small closed tears to the front panel along upper edge and near lower joint; chip to upper front panel. Small stains to verso of jacket not visible on recto. Minor toning to the jacket, but on the whole complete and much nicer than usually encountered. The French and English editions were both released by Reynal and Hitchcock in 1943, after the author completed the work during his exile in New York. Over the course of eight days, the mysterious Little Prince recounts the story of his brief life to an aviator stranded in the Sahara after a plane crash. A best-selling children's book from the time of its release, it also remains a philosophical and spiritual work that touches adult readers. As the Little Prince shares his observations about the worlds he has visited, including our own, we have the opportunity to reflect on the kind of people we become as we enter adulthood -- and how we might work to make ourselves and the world a kinder place. Indeed, while the Little Prince often laments the foibles and tragedies of the human world, it is in nature he finds positive truth. The Rose, the Fox, and the Snake carry important lessons about love, commitment, and the finite nature of life. Saint-Exupery, himself a World War II aviator, would tragically die in a plane crash shortly after the book's release. It stands as his lasting legacy, a work of genius. Near Fine in Very Good + dust jacket.