# Is "The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince)" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943) is identified by: New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, April 1943, in two issues — Katherine Woods's English translation (The Little Prince) and Saint-Exupéry's original French text (Le Petit Prince). The census claim is confirmed in substance: both the original French text and the English translation first appeared from Reynal & Hitchcock in New York in April 1943, not from a French house — the famous reversal is real.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, April 1943, in two issues — Katherine Woods's English translation (The Little Prince) and Saint-Exupéry's original French text (Le Petit Prince)
- For the English trade issue the title-page imprint must read "Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc."; the copyright notice must carry no edition or printing numbering; and the colophon must be present on the last page, with no mention of Harcourt anywhere
- The French issue additionally carries the "mark of the raven" on p
- 63: a small black spot on the horizon, right of the foot of the peak in the mountain-top illustration, resembling a bird in flight
- It is an artefact of the original printing and disappears with the sixth French edition, when the type was reset; its absence indicates a later printing
- Signed limited issues accompany the trade issues, signed by the author on a tipped-in limitation leaf with the copy number repeated on the jacket spine; the English limitation is commonly recorded at 525 numbered copies and the French at 260, though one auction record gives 500 for the English, so the exact figure is not settled
- Publisher imprint reads Reynal & Hitchcock

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Antoine de Saint-Exupéry |
| Publisher | Reynal & Hitchcock |
| Year | 1943 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, April 1943, in two issues — Katherine Woods's English translation (The Little Prince) and Saint-Exupéry's… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, April 1943, in two issues — Katherine Woods's English translation (The Little Prince) and Saint-Exupéry's original French text (Le Petit Prince). For the English trade issue the title-page imprint must read "Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc."; the copyright notice must carry no edition or printing numbering; and the colophon must be present on the last page, with no mention of Harcourt anywhere. The French issue additionally carries the "mark of the raven" on p. 63: a small black spot on the horizon, right of the foot of the peak in the mountain-top illustration, resembling a bird in flight. It is an artefact of the original printing and disappears with the sixth French edition, when the type was reset; its absence indicates a later printing. Signed limited issues accompany the trade issues, signed by the author on a tipped-in limitation leaf with the copy number repeated on the jacket spine; the English limitation is commonly recorded at 525 numbered copies and the French at 260, though one auction record gives 500 for the English, so the exact figure is not settled. Jacket point: the Reynal & Hitchcock Fourth Avenue address at the front flap, with the price present at the flap. Cloth colour is NOT a reliable point — the specialist Petit Prince Collection census records that cover cloth colour varies both between and within editions in both languages, so the widely repeated "salmon cloth, not blue" test should not be relied on.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is confirmed in substance: both the original French text and the English translation first appeared from Reynal & Hitchcock in New York in April 1943, not from a French house — the famous reversal is real. Sources conflict on sequencing within April 1943: several date the English issue to 6 April 1943 with the French following a few days later, while dealers describing the 260-copy French limitation call that the true first. Both New York issues are collected and the days-level precedence is not settled here. Gallimard's Paris edition is the first French edition published in France: printing was completed 30 November 1945 but it was not released until April 1946, and Gallimard dates it 1946. It is a hardcover of 93 pp. in blue cloth with the Little Prince and the "nrf" device stamped in red, under a jacket closely resembling the American one. It is set from the American French text and carries its own errors — the asteroid is numbered "3251" in Paris against "325" in New York, and a star is missing from the astronomer's telescope scene.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The dominant trap is publisher succession, not a book club: Reynal & Hitchcock was bought by Harcourt, Brace & Company in 1948, which merged into Harcourt, Brace & World in 1960, and those later printings carry only the 1943 copyright date — they are routinely offered as firsts on the strength of that date alone. Test the imprint, not the date: any Harcourt name on the title page or copyright page rules out the first printing. Confirm the last-page colophon is present and the copyright notice carries no edition numbering. In French, later printings lose the p. 63 raven mark from the sixth edition onward. Cloth colour and jacket artwork are not reliable tells, and jackets on this title are frequently restored or supplied.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince)* by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-little-prince-le-petit-prince
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.