France celebrates 70th birthday of Little Prince

"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is 70 years old this year and France is marking the occasion with a host of special editions, including a new biography of the author.

DR

Le Petit Prince, a series of parables in which a boy prince recounts his adventures among the stars to a pilot on Earth whose plane is downed, was first published in New York in 1943, in English and French.

Since then, more than 145 million copies have been sold worldwide, translated into 270 languages and dialects.

Saint-Exupéry was a pilot himself and he died mysteriously on a reconnaissance mission, at the age of 44, two years before the publication of his book in France in 1946.

To mark the anniversary, a new biography by Virgil Tanase is being published while an earlier book Saint-Exupéry, Archangel and Writer by Nathalie des Vallieres is being reissued.

Publisher Folio is issuing a limited edition with a booklet of 24 drawings by Saint-Exupéry, as well as a cartoon version.

A CD of the popular 1954 recording of the book narrated by Gérard Philippe is also available.

Later in the year, another edition will feature the original manuscript while an e-book will include archive drawings and other special features.