Vol de nuit

First edition, false statement of edition.
Autograph inscription signed by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry on the half-title page: "à Mademoiselle Josette Arnaud dont le frère est déjà un vieux pilote de quarante six heures de vol... Et dont le père est un vieil ami" ["to Miss Josette Arnaud whose brother is already an experienced pilot with forty-six hours of flight time... And whose father is an old friend"]
Half blue morocco binding, spine with five raised bands, gilt date at foot, paper boards, grey paper endpapers and pastedowns, top edge gilt on deckled edges, binding signed P. Goy and C. Vilaine.
It was undoubtedly in 1926 that young Antoine, freshly hired by the Latécoère company, future Aéropostale, met Josette Arnaud's father, while he was making his first flights between Toulouse and Dakar.
The two friends would meet again thirteen years later, when, having become one of the most famous French writers, Saint-Exupéry returned to his adopted city to contribute to the war effort. In September 1939, having returned from the United States where he was promoting his latest book, Terre des Hommes, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was indeed mobilized with the rank of captain. He was assigned to the air base of Francazal, in a bomber pilot training unit. It was on this occasion that he trained Josette's brother, while in the evening he amazed the youngest with his famous card tricks, as the young girl testified under another dedication on Courrier Sud.
Unable to be content with a figurehead role, Saint-Exupéry would not stay long in Toulouse and would obtain his transfer to an aerial reconnaissance squadron which would inspire his Pilote de guerre.
But at the dawn of one of the most terrible tragedies of the 20th century, it is a story of courage and fraternity and the account of a great human and humanistic adventure, that the future author of The Little Prince decided to offer to this young girl, testifying to their complicity and his great respect for children and their capacity for wonder.