New York

First edition, one of 425 numbered copies on vergé chiffon américain, the only issue after 75 marais.
Decorated with illustrations by André Masson.
Publisher's binding, grey cloth spine, cream boards, first cover illustrated with a drawing by André Masson
A pleasant copy of this work describing in the form of a poem the Occupation and subsequent Liberation of Paris.

First edition of the English translation, published 15 days before the original French edition. One of 525 numbered copies signed by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the only deluxe paper copies and the very first issue of Saint-Exupéry's allegorical masterpiece, the most translated work after the Bible.
Publisher's binding in full brick-colored cloth, smooth spine, with the first issue dust jacket for the trade edition, at the correct address and with the price unclipped, showing a few discreet restorations.
Printed ex-libris at the head of the first flyleaf.
Illustrated with drawings by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

5 sheets on white glassine watermarked with “Esleeck Fidelity Onion Skin Made in USA,” black pen, foliation handwritten in black pen on the first page (1), subsequent foliation in purple pencil (0428-0432). Rust marks, several folds in the margins.
Several crossed-out sections, additions in the margins, corrections and erasures. Illegible sections.
The Smithsonian Institution (Archives of American Art) preserves the final typescript of Lettre à un otage (Letter to a Hostage), as well as the manuscript proofs that Saint-Exupéry entrusted to the famous expressionist painter Hedda Sterne on 16th April 1943, before leaving for Oran.
A precious handwritten...