The Little Prince

Beschreibung I ask the indulgence of the children who may read this book for dedicating it to a grown-up. I have a serious reason: he is the best friend I have in the world. I have another reason: this grown-up understands everything, even books about children. I have a third reason: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up. If all these reasons are not enough, I will dedicate the book to the child from whom this grown-up grew. All grown-ups were once children-- although few of them remember it. And so I correct my dedication: To Leon Werth when he was a little boy Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing. In the book it said: 'Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion.'

SAINT-EXUPÉRY, Antoine de (1900-44). An adventurous pilot and a lyrical poet, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry conveyed in his books the solitude and mystic grandeur of the early days of flight. He described dangerous adventures in the skies and also wrote the whimsical children's fable 'The Little Prince'.Antoine- Saint-Exupéry was born on June 29, 1900, in Lyon, France. In the 1920s he helped establish airmail routes overseas. During World War II he flew as a military reconnaissance pilot. After the Germans occupied France in 1940, he escaped to the United States. He rejoined the air force in North Africa in 1943. During what was to have been his final reconnaissance mission over the MediterraneanSea, he died when his plane was shot down on July 31, 1944.