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Did you know that one of the most read books in the world, “The Little Prince”, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, was written in 1942, in the United States? The manuscript had so far never crossed the Atlantic, it has finally just done so to be exhibited at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, from February 17.
After a night flight over the Atlantic, the New York – Paris has just landed at Roissy (Val d’Oise). The curator of the Museum of Decorative Arts awaits it impatiently despite the rain, because in the holds of this Air France aircraft, there is a national treasure. In the cockpit, it’s also a great emotion for the captain. “It was reading Saint-Exupéry, Kessel, Romain Gary, all these people who were pilots, who really gave me this vocation as an airline pilot”, says Jean-Michel Buffet.
The aviator writer’s great-grandnephew was also part of the trip. Because as surprising as it may seem, the manuscript of The Little Prince had never left New York, his hometown. The 141 sheets of the aviator writer are kept at the Morgan Library. “It is our greatest treasure”, says Colin B. Baileydirector of the Morgan Library from New York. In the end, 35 pages of the original manuscript will be exhibited at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, until June 26.