70th anniversary of "The Little Prince"

Hi everyone,

I don't know which is the most famous French novel throughout the world (response below) but "The Little Prince" is indeed well known.

I'm a bit late for the 70th anniversary as I read it was published on April 6, 1943. The novel was written in New York then Long Island.

Very weird, "The Little Prince" doesn't look like other novels written by Antoine de Saint Exupéry.
St Ex was living in New York and needed money; at a restaurant with a friend, he looked a bit worried and was keeping drawing a little boy on his napkin so the friend suggested to tell the story of this boy... not easy to write a book for kids when you wrote "Vol de nuit", "Terre des hommes", "Pilote de guerre", etc.
The writting was very slow; written at "La Grenouille" (a bar in New York) and in a period full of troubles in France as well as in the French community in NY (strong quarrels and St Ex didn't want to choose between De Gaulle and Pétain as he didn't like any). St Ex moved to Long Island; finally, it was not a novel for kids but a novella for adults through kid eyes; St Ex was killed in his plane in 1944 and the plane was discovered in 2003... but better to read...

-> Wikipedia (En) / Wikipedia (Fr)

The novella is both the most read and most translated book in the French language, and was voted the best book of the 20th century in France. Translated into more than 250 languages and dialects (including braille), selling over a million copies per year with sales totalling more than 140 million copies worldwide, it has become one of the best-selling books ever published.

Saint-Exupéry, a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and a reserve military pilot at the start of the Second World War, wrote and illustrated the manuscript while exiled in the United States after the Fall of France. He had travelled there on a personal mission to persuade its government to quickly enter the war against Nazi Germany. In the midst of personal upheavals and failing health he produced almost half of the writings he would be remembered for, including a tender tale of loneliness, friendship, love and loss, in the form of a young prince fallen to Earth.

-> Le petit prince (French)
-> St Ex's bio (French)
-> Antoine de Saint Exupéry (French)

This 70th anniversary will be celebrated during the whole year 2013 in the USA, France, Spain (and some other countries).

Hi Muriel,

Actually I read that "The Little Prince" was a biographical novella but I didn't get details. This confirms your words.