Lettres à l'amie inventée [avec un dessin original de Saint-Exupéry]

Deluxe issue, enhanced by a remarkable original drawing presented to Léon Werth.

First edition under this title with illustrations by Saint-Exupéry, one of 20 numbered copies on Madagascar paper, a deluxe issue. Published just days after the original edition without illustrations, issued by Gallimard (Lettres de jeunesse 1923–1931).

The work features 10 colour illustrations by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, as well as a cover vignette after a drawing by the author.

This copy is further enhanced by an exceptional blue and red pencil drawing by Saint-Exupéry on watermarked paper, inscribed in pencil on the verso: “Given to Léon Werth [dedicatee of The Little Prince].” A horizontal fold and a minor rust mark at the lower section, neither impairing the artwork.

Léon Werth, although never one to prize bibliophilic editions of his beloved friend’s works, evidently held this deluxe copy in great esteem, much like those personally presented to him by the author. These books had endured with him exile and anti-Semitic persecution:

“Je n’ai qu’un souci c’est d’emporter Terre des hommes. Non pas parce que cet exemplaire est de luxe, de haut luxe. Je n’ai qu’un maigre respect pour les belles éditions. Mais parce que Saint-Exupéry me l’a donné, parce que le beau papier, les pages non rognées ne sont pas richesse et vanité, mais amitié.” (33 jours, Paris, Ed. Viviane Hamy, 1992, p. 48)

[“My sole concern is to carry Terre des hommes. Not for its deluxe status, nor for its luxury. I have little regard for fine editions. But because Saint-Exupéry gave it to me, and because the fine paper and uncut pages represent not wealth or vanity, but friendship.” (33 jours, Paris, Éd. Viviane Hamy, 1992, p. 48)]

This beautiful tradition of “pages of friendship” seems to be perpetuated here by Werth, who likely received a deluxe copy presented by the publisher in honour of his late friend. This beautiful tradition of “pages of friendship” seems to be perpetuated here by Werth, who likely received a deluxe copy presented by the publisher in honour of his late friend. he figure of this sketch is stylistically close to the “drawings for Rinette” in blue and red pencil illustrating that very work.

It features the characteristic zoomorphic silhouette defined by bold strokes, highlighted with a touch of bright red and adorned with a tie—a recurring motif in Saint-Exupéry’s fantasy characters, often depicted with coat collars, bow ties, and ties that evolved into the famous scarf of The Little Prince.

From sketches of fellow conscripts during his military service in Casablanca to the watercolours of The Little Prince, drawing was a constant and pervasive pastime in Saint-Exupéry’s life. Whether on letters to friends, margins of manuscripts, frontispieces of gifted books, telegrams, bills, tablecloths, or flyers—anything that could host his imagination—he drew, sketched, caricatured, and invented living and imaginary creatures, friends and acquaintances. Except for those marginal drawings and gifts to close friends, most of his pre-Ameroca, exile works were destroyed by the artist himself.

This deluxe copy of this significant youthful correspondence is accompanied by a rare, colourful, and striking original drawing by Saint-Exupéry, given to the dedicatee of The Little Prince.